The Bullet Swallower

Based on (mostly) true events, The Bullet Swallower is a magical realism western about violence and revenge, a story that asks who pays for the sins of our ancestors, and whether it is possible to be better than our forebears.

In 1895 Antonio Sonoro is a fearsome bandido who sets off from his home in northern Mexico to rob a train in Texas with his younger brother. But when the robbery goes awry and the two brothers land in the crosshairs of the Texas Rangers, Antonio is launched into a quest for revenge that endangers both his family, and his soul.

In 1964 Jaime Sonoro, Antonio’s grandson, is Mexico’s favorite singing cowboy. But his comfortable life is disrupted when he discovers a book that purports to tell the entire history of his family beginning with Cain and Abel. Reading the book Jaime not only discovers the multitude of horrific crimes committed by his ancestors, but he realizes that these crimes have opened up a cosmic debt, and that he may be the next in line to repay it.

A family saga that’s epic in scope but compact in form, The Bullet Swallower tackles border politics, intergenerational trauma, and the legacies of racism and colonialism in a lush setting and stunning prose that evokes Cormac McCarthy and Gabriel García Márquez.