The Devil''s Backbone

The last the boy Papa saw of his Momma, she was galloping away on her horse Precious in the saddle her father took from a dead Mexican officer after the Battle of San Jacinto, fleeing from his Daddy, Old Karl, a vicious, tight-fisted horse trader. Mommas flight sets Papa on a relentless quest to find her that thrusts him and his scrappy little dog Fritz into adventures all across the wild and woolly Hill Country of Central Texas, down to Mexico, and even into the realm of the ghostly Shimmery People. In The Devils Backbone, master storyteller Bill Wittliff takes readers on an exciting journey through a rough 1880s frontier as full of colorful characters and unexpected turns of events as the great American quest novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Wittliff grew up listening to stories and memories like these in his own family, and in this imaginative novel, they come to vivid life, creating an engrossing story of a Texas Huck Finn that brims with folk wisdom and sly humor. A rogues gallery of characters thwart and aid Papas pathOld Karl, hell-bent on bringing the boy back to servitude on his farm, and Herman, Papas brother whos got Old Karls horse-trading instincts and greed; Calley Pearsall, an enigmatic cowboy with other Fish to Fry who might be an outlaw or a trustworthy oAmigo; oJeffey, a black seer who talks to the spirits but wont tell Papa what she has divined about his Momma; Mister Pegleg, a three-legged coyote with whom Papa forms a poignant, nearly tragic friendship; the Mexkins Pepe and Peto and their father Old Crecencio, whose longing for his lost family is as strong as Papas; and blind Bird, a magical blue baby who cant see with his eyes but who helps other people see what they hold in their hearts. Papas adventures draw him ever nearer to a mysterious cave that haunts his dreamsan actual cave that he discovers at last in the canyons of the Devils Backbonebut will he find Momma before Old Karl finds him?