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Houghton Mifflin
November 2007
On Sale: November 6, 2007
304 pages ISBN: 0618799907 EAN: 9780618799909 Hardcover
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Fiction
A breakout novel from the author of The Jump-Off Creek, the
heartwarming story of a determined young woman with a gift
for gentling wild horses. In the winter of 1917, when a
young woman shows up at his doorstep looking for work
breaking horses, George Bliss hires her on. Many of his
regular hands are off fighting the war, and he glimpses,
beneath her showy rodeo garb, a shy but feisty girl with a
serious knowledge of horses. So begins the irresistible tale
of nineteen-year-old Martha Lessen, a female horse whisperer
trying to make a go of it in a mans world. At the time, it
was thought that the only way to break a horse was to buck
the wild out of him, but when the ranchers in this remote
county of Eastern Oregon witness Martha talking in sweet
tones to horses believed beyond repair -- and getting
miraculous results -- she earns a place of respect in the
community. Along the way, she helps a family save their
horses when their wagon slides into a ravine; she gentles a
horse for a dying man -- a last gift to his young son; she
clashes with a hired hand who is abusing horses in
unspeakable ways; and gradually, she comes to feel enveloped
by a sense of belonging and family shes never had before. With the elegant sweetness of Plainsong and a pitch-perfect
sense of western life reminiscent of Annie Dillard, The
Hearts of Horses is a remarkable story about the connections
between and among people and animals and how they touch one
another in the most unexpected and profound ways. Fans of
Kent Haruf and Leif Enger will fall adore this gentle,
lovely novel and bookseller fans will be thrilled to
handsell the first Molly Gloss hardcover to be published by
Houghton.
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