Cormac McCarthy meets Gabriel Marcia Marquez in a multi-generational novel about ancestral crimes on the Texas border. It took no time at all for me to know The Bullet Swallower was going to be one of the first books I picked up for 2024. In two separate times we follow both the odyssey of the bandit Antonio Solero, scion of a cursed mine owner born with literal gold in his eyes, and his descendent Jaime, one of Mexico’s most recognizable actors of the 20th century who must uncover the cosmic truths of his family’s violent past. Elizabeth Gonzalez Jones’s prose is glittering with beauty and stagecraft while still packed with action.
The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Camarillo Gonzalez James, (List Price: $26.99, Simon & Schuster, 9781668009321, January 2024)
Reviewed by Amanda Depperschmidt, Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia