The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford

Rich Milford is dead. At last.

We find ourselves in Oklahoma, just far enough out of Tulsa, just long enough after the Massacre of 1921. For as long as anyone can remember, the Milfords have led plentiful lives on the backs of the townspeople of Newville. Now, on the ominous brink of the Great Depression and at the height of Prohibition, Richard Milford is an infamous moonshiner and womanizer and, it seems, finally crossed the wrong person at the wrong time. He’s dead and buried, with no one but his women to mourn him, but one question remains: who killed him, and why?

Top suspects are his four “wives,” Lally, Sophronia, Georgette, and Vivianne. But as their stories burst to light in a volley of competing narratives, the very idea of a true story comes apart before our eyes.

A sly, spry tall tale about the murder of an infamous moonshiner and the cacophony of true stories a small town can tell about itself.

Endorsements

“vivid, fast, funny, way-smart, and verbally inventive” — George Saunders

Multi-award–winning. National Book Award–longlisted.