Missouri

By Christine Wunnicke, David Miller (translator),

Book cover of Missouri

Book description

This earnest, violent, yet utterly transfixing gay love story is set in the nineteenth-century American Midwest. Douglas Fortescue is a successful poet who flees England for America following a scandal; Joshua Jenkins is a feral young outlaw who was taught how to shoot a man at age six. The two…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

1 author picked Missouri as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Someone bought me Missouri. I had it on my shelf for ages, not thinking so much of it (judging the book by its cover). As soon as I started reading it though I was transfixed.

It’s a pitch-perfect novella, beautifully written, heartbreaking, tender, funny, and tragic; a remarkable gay love story, easily on a par with Annie Proulx’s wonderful Brokeback Mountain. Like all major novels – and this is a very short one – I came to care deeply about the two lovers at the heart of Missouri.

Erotic (in the best sense), cinematic in its evocation…

Want books like Missouri?

Our community of 11,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Missouri.

Browse books like Missouri

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in gay men, outlaws, and poets?

Gay Men 132 books
Outlaws 48 books
Poets 73 books