“People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band.”
‘True Grit’ by Charles Portis
Amazon

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘The Big Sleep’ by Raymond Chandler
‘Brighton Rock’ by Graham Greene
‘The Ghost Road’ by Pat Barker

And to see what fourteen-year-old Mattie Ross might be like, if she were real, click here.

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
TRUE GRIT by Charles Portis #books via @SandraDanby http://wp.me/p5gEM4-eB