Elizabeth Gonzalez James at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes ELIZABETH GONZALEZ JAMES—author of Mona at Sea—for a discussion her new novel The Bullet Swallower. She will be joined in conversation by HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN—37 time Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter for Boston's WHDH-TV and author of The House Guest.

About The Bullet Swallower

In 1895, Antonio Sonoro is the latest in a long line of ruthless men. He’s good with his gun and is drawn to trouble but he’s also out of money and out of options. A drought has ravaged the town of Dorado, Mexico, where he lives with his wife and children, and so when he hears about a train laden with gold and other treasures, he sets off for Houston to rob it—with his younger brother Hugo in tow. But when the heist goes awry and Hugo is killed by the Texas Rangers, Antonio finds himself launched into a quest for revenge that endangers not only his life and his family, but his eternal soul.

In 1964, Jaime Sonoro is Mexico’s most renowned actor and singer. 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. In its ancient pages, Jaime learns about the multitude of horrific crimes committed by his ancestors. And when the same mysterious figure from Antonio’s timeline shows up in Mexico City, Jaime realizes that he may be the one who has to pay for his ancestors’ crimes, unless he can discover the true story of his grandfather Antonio, the legendary bandido El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower.

A family saga that’s epic in scope and magical in its blood, and based loosely on the author’s own great-grandfather, The Bullet Swallower tackles border politics, intergenerational trauma, and the legacies of racism and colonialism in a lush setting and stunning prose that asks who pays for the sins of our ancestors, and whether it is possible to be better than our forebears.

Praise for The Bullet Swallower

"I won't soon forget The Bullet Swallower, a rich, sparkling novel that raises questions of destiny and who pays the debts of our fathers and their fathers before them. Alive with the people, landscape, and fauna of the Texas-Mexico borderlands, Elizabeth Gonzalez James's novel captured my imagination, then took up residence in my heart." —Kelli Jo Ford, Plimpton Prize-winning author of Crooked Hallelujah

"One Hundred Years of Solitude meets Lonesome Dove. A gunslinging Western laced with magical realism that illuminates the complicated history between Texas and Mexico, and the impacts of colonialism and generational trauma. The Bullet Swallower is the historical novel of our time because it asks: “What do we owe for the crimes of our ancestors?” A masterpiece!" —Mary Pauline Lowry, author of The Roxy Letters

"An utterly original, wild ride rendered by Gonzalez James’s masterful hand that turns the traditional redemption narrative on its head. In cracking open her own family legends, The Bullet Swallower brings to vibrant, three dimensional life the people and history of the Mexican and Texas border. Full of heart and humor, the magic in this book is not what is invented, but that it makes you wonder what it is, in all our histories, we may have forgotten?" —Xochitl Gonzalez, New York Times bestselling author of Olga Dies Dreaming

Masking Policy