''By Sorrow's River'' is a 2003 novel by
Larry McMurtry
Larry Jeff McMurtry (June 3, 1936March 25, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist, bookseller and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. . It is the third, both in chronological and publishing order, of ''
The Berrybender Narratives''. Set in the year 1833, it recounts the Berrybenders' journey south through the Great Plains to
Bent's Fort
Bent's Old Fort is an 1833 fort located in Otero County in southeastern Colorado, United States. A company owned by Charles Bent and William Bent and Ceran St. Vrain built the fort to trade with Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho Plains Indians and ...
on the
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...
.
The theme of random and senseless death, often present in McMurtry's western fiction, is particularly powerful in this book; several characters die due to their own poor judgement or that of others.
2003 American novels
Novels by Larry McMurtry
Western (genre) novels
Fiction set in 1833
Novels set in the 1830s
American historical novels
Western United States in fiction
The Berrybender Narratives
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