Back of the Book
"Littrell bares her well-earned scars without shame,
showing toughness, humor, and honesty. She's the real deal."
~William C. Pack
Author of The Bottom of the Sky,
National Best Book Award Finalist and Pulitzer Nominee
"The prose and lessons in When the Dust Settled by Tamara Littrell
are stunningly crisp in their delivery and unassailably authentic.
Whether you have lived around the ranch life of the
Northern Rockies and Plains or not, you will smell sage and sweat.
You'll feel the stiff weave of a lariat in calloused palm;
remember its burn on young skin.
Soon you'll hear the lonesome fullness of a quiet wind
against our heart and taste the blood of a horse in your mouth.
Yet those are but an eddy in the river of sensations
where Littrell floats this vagabond, coming-of-age story.
We watch Littrell and her sister grow from girls to women
in the wake of their tough and stoic cowboy father and his adoring
but subjugated wife, who deeply loved him.
When the Dust Settled is proof that cowboys grow old,
but their pain is guaran-goddamn-teed to stay fresh.
It's proof that a man's daughters are still daughters, even when the reins are ripped from his aged hands, and that finally finding the trail is all that matters. Littrell bares her well-earned scars without shame,
showing them with toughness, humor, and honesty.
She is a woman and author-in-full.
But perhaps most of all, Littrell proves a human of extraordinary grace as she examine her life- long oppressor and hero.
She is our mentor. She is the real deal.
~ William C. Pack
Author of The Bottom of the Sky,
National Best Book Award Finalist and Pulitzer Nominee
"I so enjoyed When the Dust Settled. I can appreciate the early sadness in
Tamara Littrell's life, and so enjoyed the way that she found humor to replace it. The duty she felt for her father is hard to explain, but I sure can relate.
It is a compelling read."
~Buck Brannaman
BUCK, Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award, 2011
Inspiration for The Horse Whisperer and Author of The Faraway Horses.
"In the tradition of Mari Sandoz andOld Jules,
Tamara Littrell's portrayal of a family in the American West
at Mid-century is as heart-wrenching as it is surprisingly tender."
~ Mary Clearman Blew
Author of Jackalope Dreams
"Tammi Littrell has written a book that is both heartbreaking and soul searching, humorous and poignant. Before you're done reading it , you'll laugh out loud, crave a stiff shot of whiskey, and wipe away tears that refuse to stop flowing.
Raw emotion, searing angst, and gut-wrenching drama rise from
When the Dust Settled like a Montana sunset on a winter-washed prairie.
This is a story of a little girl, a tough old cowboy, and the bond that held them together through a life that attempted to tear them apart."
~ Jane Wells
Writer, Essayist, and Former Book Critic, Louisville Courier Journal
"A vignette of a cowboyin' family that is gritty and humorous,
Tamara has caught the authenticity of a Western way of life."
~ Stephanie Alton
Director of the Documentary, Ridin' for the Brand
"This book will go right to your heart. It is so powerfully written, you won't be able to put it down. Tammi pulls no punches and gives us the gift of insight into her life, and what it really means to grow up cowboy in the American West."
~ John Douglas Wood
Author of The Adventures of Blondie Magoo and Puddles Pinkerton