The first literary biography of Edward Abbey in a generation, this thoughtful memoir serves as a meditation on the writing life, the cult of readers, reputation, and the literary afterlife of a well-known writer.

The author of ‘Murder City” and “Down by the River” reflects on the destructive nature of American culture. Cultivated from the fierce ideas seeded in “Blood Orchid, Blues for Cannibals” is an elegiac reflection on death, pain, and a wavering confidence in humanity's own abilities for self-preservation. After years of reporting on border violence, sex crimes, and the devastation of the land, Bowden struggles to make sense of the many ways...

The author is joined by a retired narcotics cop as they investigate the assassination of a drug dealer and hit man outside Tucson, Arizona. One of Charles Bowden's earliest books, Red Line powerfully conveys a desert civilization careening over the edge—and decaying at its center. Bowden's quest for the literal and figurative truth behind the assassination of a murderous border-town drug dealer becomes a meditation on the glories of the desert landscape,...

"I believe every sunrise and I remember the smell of wet grass, the color of robins, and rustle of leaves on the big oaks that outlive nations, all this comes with each sunrise." Sonata marks the sixth and final installment of Charles Bowden's towering "Unnatural History of America" series. While his earlier volumes were suffused with violence and war, Bowden offers here a celebration of rebirth and regrowth. Rendered in Bowden's inimitable style,...

The third book in Charles Bowden's "accidental trilogy" that began with Blood Orchid and Blues for Cannibals, Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing attempts to resolve the overarching question: "How can a person live a moral life in a culture of death?" As humanity moves further into the twenty-first century, Bowden continues to interrogate our roles in creating the ravaged landscapes and accumulated death that still surround us, as well as his own...

Ciudad Juarez lies just across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas. A once-thriving border town, it now resembles a failed state. Infamously known as the place where women disappear, its murder rate exceeds that of Baghdad. In Murder City, Charles Bowden-one of the few journalists who spent extended periods of time in Juarez-has written an extraordinary account of what happens when a city disintegrates. Interweaving stories of its inhabitants-a beauty...

Caught in the crosshairs of Mexico's warring cartels, Juárez is the border city that most brutally exposes the lies that we tell ourselves about globalization, NAFTA, immigration, corruption, and the war on drugs. Once known only as the place where women disappear, its murder rate exceeds that of Baghdad and Mogadishu. In this heartbreaking, disturbing, and unforgettable examination, award winning-writer Charles Bowden takes an axe to the myths about...

Soon to be a major motion picture! “Kill the Messenger” tells the story of the tragic death of Gary Webb, the controversial newspaper reporter who committed suicide in December 2004. Webb is the former San Jose Mercury News reporter whose 1996 "Dark Alliance" series on the so-called CIA, crack cocaine connection created a firestorm of controversy and led to his resignation from the paper amid escalating attacks on his work by the mainstream media....