Joe R. Lansdale 
Paradise Sky 

Meet Nat Love. Born a slave in Texas, he escapes a lynching and finds a mentor who trains him in shooting, riding, reading, writing and gardening. But the enemies of his youth pursue him, and soon he is on the run again…In the course of a tumultuous life, he becomes in turn a Buffalo Soldier, a bouncer, a ratcatcher, a sharpshooter, a dime-novel star, a friend to Wild Bill Hickock and a US Marshall. From Texas to Deadwood and back down south, he both dodges and courts violence, hoping one day to get his revenge.Featuring cowboys, Apaches, buffalo and much, much more, this is a mostly true tale of how the West was won from one of America’s most original writers.