Author Rick Bass has won the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry and PEN/Nelson Algren Awards for his short fiction. With The Diezmo he crafts a stirring novel that sheds light on an extraordinary but little-known episode of Texas history. When Sam Houston organizes an attack into Mexico, the gloryseeking Texans are overwhelmed. Captured, they face the terrible Diezmo-a game of chance that ensures every 10th man will be killed.