Brokeback Mountain

Annie Proulx has written some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature, and for many readers and reviewers, "Brokeback Mountain" is her masterpiece.

Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two ranch hands, come together when they're working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first, sharing an isolated tent, the attraction is casual, inevitable, but something deeper catches them that summer.

Both men work hard, marry, and have kids because that's what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives, and they do anything they can to preserve it.

The New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for Fiction for its publication of "Brokeback Mountain," and the story was included in Prize Stories 1998: The O. Henry Awards. In gorgeous and haunting prose, Proulx limns the difficult, dangerous affair between two cowboys that survives everything but the world's violent intolerance.

Two handsomely produced editions of the award-winning story "Brokeback Mountain" (from the collection Close Range) to coincide with the release of the major independent film directed by Ang Lee and starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger.

Annie Proulx's breathtaking story Brokeback Mountain has now been adapted to film by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. This handsome edition of the story, originally published in the collection Close Range, will coincide with the release of the film in 2005. The release of the film of The Shipping News brought hundreds of thousands of new readers to that novel. Brokeback Mountain is the story of Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist, two cowboys who share a small cabin while working as herders and camp tenders during a summer spent on a range far above the tree line. They fall into a relationship that at first seems solely sexual-but then reveals itself to be something more. Both men marry and have families, but over the course of many years and frequent separations they find their relation- ship becomes the most important thing in both their lives, and they do anything they can to maintain it. Proulx's description of their bond is beautiful and haunting-and often brutal in its portrayal of the hardships, and ultimately the violence, they face. Perfect for both moviegoers and Proulx's already well-established legions of readers, this volume is a handsome and timely edition of one of the most talked-about stories of recent years.

About the Author
ANNIE PROULX is the acclaimed author of The Shipping News, That Old Ace in the Hole, Accordion Crimes, Close Range, and Bad Dirt. She has won the Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. She lives in Wyoming.

Even when Proulx is writing about modern-day characters, her stories seem like they are from another time. In a way, they are: Proulx often sets her tales in forgotten places at a pace that's measured, intricate, and more closely aligned with earlier, quieter days.