Coming soon

The Pass

A Novel of the American West

Across a western frontier, the hardest terrain to cross is the space between men.

Cover of The Pass by Matt Bachtold: a mule train and riders climb a snowy ridge toward a jagged peak at sunset.

The Book

Spring, 1833. Theo Callaway, eager to be counted among men, leaves his father's store in Hannibal, Missouri, to join an expedition bound for the Rocky Mountains. Their leader promises wages and a pass the wagons can cross. The mountains will ask for more.

Beside him ride Caleb Pruitt, a man who learned early that the world hits first, and Fen Caulfield, who has spent years outrunning the one thing he can't. Around the fire are men who have already paid their own prices.

By the time the snow closes the high country, every man will have to face what he carried west, and decide whether to keep carrying it.

The Pass is a historical novel of fathers, sons, and the wounds men don't talk about.

“I’d rather be lonely than owned.”
Caleb Pruitt

“Country like this has a way of putting a man in his right place. Not crushed. Just correctly sized.”
Reverend Amos Tate

“There’s a kind of father who only knows how to be a judge. It’s a hard thing for a son to carry, believing that his value is only found in the quality of his harvest.”
Reverend Amos Tate

“Approval is a powerful thing. Especially when you’ve never had the right kind of it. It can blind a man to the hook inside the bait.”
Reverend Amos Tate

“A man can draw a line on paper, but he can’t draw the grade.”
Reverend Amos Tate

“You’re not less of a man because you need something, Fen. You are less of a man when you cannot admit it.”
Siah Flood

“I’ve known men who bury the person but never the grief. They build a house over the hole and dare anyone to look underneath.”
Reverend Amos Tate

“They build a smaller world they can run. My father built his out of fists and silence. Yours built his out of ink and paper.”
Caleb Pruitt

Genre: Historical fiction, Western
Setting: Missouri to the Wind River country, 1833 to 1834
Formats: Paperback and Kindle
Release: Date to be announced

The Author

Matt
Bachtold

Matt Bachtold is a writer, a former pastor, and the founder of Be Missional, a nonprofit that equips Christians to reach the mission field around them.

He spent a decade in Ivanovo, Russia, in the years after the Soviet Union fell, and still reads and writes Russian. His work life has ranged from IT administration to owning a business to raising support for ministry. The Pass grew out of a long interest in what men carry and rarely say.

He lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Beyond the Book

Be Missional

Inspiring Christians to recognize and reach the mission field where they already live.

Visit Be Missional

Music

Songs and recordings by Matt Bachtold, on Spotify.

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Ministry & Support

Matt serves as a shepherd with Standing Stone Ministry, caring for pastors and missionaries. Learn about the work or partner with it.

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