Daniel Woodrell

During the Civil War, fifteen-year-old Jake Roedel joins the First Kansas Irregulars and after coming face to face with unrestrained violence, comes to question his loyalties

Woe to Live on

Melody Izard

Never knew that the border states played a part in the Civil War. You evidently had to choose sides. And no matter what you did you had the big chance that someone would show up at your house demanding food and your horses and then shoot you in the head. So these regular boys formed these rag-tag haphazardly formed platoons with self-appointed leaders and their own code of honor. They starved and bled and expected death. They chose a fighting side without knowing why sometimes and they slipped further and further down into the dark side of civilization.

Set in the border states of Kansas and Missouri, WOE TO LIVE ON explores the nature of lawlessness and violence, friendship and loyalty, through the eyes of young recruit Jake Roedel. Where he and his fellow First Kansas Irregulars go, no one is safe, no one can be neutral. Roedel grows up fast, experiencing a brutal parody of war without standards or mercy. But as friends fall and families flee, he questions his loyalties and becomes an outsider even to those who have become outlaws.

Woe to Live on

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