Awards

• Winner of Reading the West (Nonfiction) 2014

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9781476710846

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A taut depiction of ranch life that balances ranchers' concern for their domestic animals with his own appreciation of the wild ones nearby. --Seattle Times An evocative, poetic account of rugged terrain, the men and animals who inhabited it, and the complex realities of sustainable agriculture. --Kirkus Andrews gives a thoughtful, haunting view of the business of ranching and the harsh realities of living in tandem with nature. --Mountain West News Andrews paints the rural landscape with such precision that the land becomes its own character, and his story [is] a finely tuned love song for the West. --Booklist Badluck Way is also a story about a search for an identity, one that readers can identify with even if their own adventures were not quite so gritty. It's about labor, and finding one's purpose in it... His story reaches its crescendo when a pack of wolves start to prey on the cattle he's bound to protect... Andrews offers a fresh and complex perspective... --Missoula Independent An important meditation on what it means to share space and breathe the same air as truly wild animals. --Tom Groneberg, author of The Secret Life of Cowboys Exquisitely written and unflinchingly honest, this haunting memoir about one man's complex relationship with wolves and the wild will stay with you long after you finish it, oh so reluctantly. --Patricia McConnell, author of The Other End of the Leash In this unforgettable memoir, Bryce Andrews conjures the modern West with all its grit and conflict. At core lies the old grudge between livestock protection and predator control. This fine memoir contains meticulous details of onerous ranch work--the unexpected violence of herding cows, the backbreak labor of building fence. Haunting and lyrical, this marvelous work belongs on everyone's bookshelf alongside other Western Classics. --Craig Lesley, author of Winterkill and The Sky Fisherman This book will make you have deep thoughts about our relationships with the land, nature, and animals. --Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation This memoir of life as a contemporary, ecologically minded Montana cowboy is heartfelt. Andrews' language often sings. Told in a refined version of a campfire ghost story, his narrative took my breath away. --Jana Harris, author of Horses Never Lie about Love One could find no better guide than Bryce Andrews for a journey along the shifting border between the wild and the tame; a daunting frontier filled with unsettling truths, blood and beauty. His wonderfully crafted prose is lean, yet rich in the telling details of seasons spent on a Montana ranch overseeing a shaky co-existence between cattle and wolves. Andrews is a keen-eyed ecologist, a skilled ranch hand and, best of all, a self-examining student of life with a young man's inclination to push past fear and caution toward an embrace of risky, life-altering experience. In Badluck Way, Andrews shuns both cowboy romanticism and environmentalist sermonizing and illuminates the inescapable conflict between human economic imperatives and the compulsions of animal instinct. His book is a gripping tale of the West, raw and real. --David Horsey, columnist and cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times In Badluck Way, cattlehand and writer Bryce Andrews takes us on a fascinating ride through one of the most beautiful landscapes and thorniest issues of today's American West--how can the newly reintroduced wolf and traditional cattle ranching coexist? Badluck Way is by turns an adventure story of a young man on a sprawling Montana ranch, a thoughtful reflection on the ranching life, and a visceral exploration of the cruel amorality of the natural world. Beautifully written, Andrews's book delivers a powerful emotional punch. --Peter Stark, author of The Last Empty Places Lyricism draws you in close; blunt, raw honesty holds you there... For Andrews, the mystery, grace, intelligence, and humanness of the wolves is palpable in his encounters... Badluck Way recounts in visceral detail what it means to make a 'living from a hard place' and the immense privilege and sorrow accompanying the work. It's a celebration of the merits of hard work and a tribute to a livelihood... Badluck Way succeeds as a portrait of stubborn grit and hard choice. --Camas: The Nature of the West, University of Montana Haunting and elegiac... Andrews honors the men, the land and the animals that populate the Sun Ranch... Beautifully written and viscerally honest, Badluck Way introduces a powerful new voice in environmental writing. --Bookpage.com Andrews' ... poetically rendered portrait of the wolf pack working the edges of the ranch provides a counterpoint to the humdrum reality of his daily chores. His extended meditation on the pack is also the scaffolding for the book's design. The wolves' tale is in italics, providing a visual voice. Badluck Way is a beautiful book. --The Oregonian An elegant memoir. --Great Falls Tribune

In Badluck Way , cattlehand and writer Bryce Andrews takes us on a fascinating ride through one of the most beautiful landscapes and thorniest issues of today's American West--how can the newly reintroduced wolf and traditional cattle ranching coexist? Badluck Way is by turns an adventure story of a young man on a sprawling Montana ranch, a thoughtful reflection on the ranching life, and a visceral exploration of the cruel amorality of the natural world. Beautifully written, Andrews's book delivers a powerful emotional punch. --Peter Stark, author of The Last Empty Places

Author Information

Bryce Andrews was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. He studied at Whitman College and the University of Montana, and has managed several cattle ranches in the West. He lives in Montana.

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