About the Book and Author [ Edited ]

[Jessica]

About the Book

From an award-winning and talented young novelist comes one of the most exciting fiction debuts in years: a breathtaking and beautiful novel set on a horse ranch in small-town Colorado. When her older sister runs away to marry a rodeo cowboy, Alice Winston is left to bear the brunt of her family's troubles -- a depressed, bedridden mother; a reticent, overworked father; and a run-down horse ranch. As the hottest summer in fifteen years unfolds and bills pile up, Alice is torn between dreams of escaping the loneliness of her duty-filled life and a longing to help her father mend their family and the ranch. To make ends meet, the Winstons board the pampered horses of rich neighbors, and for the first time Alice confronts the power and security that class and wealth provide. As her family and their well-being become intertwined with the lives of their clients, Alice is drawn into an adult world of secrets and hard truths, and soon discovers that people -- including herself -- can be cruel, can lie and cheat, and every once in a while, can do something heartbreaking and selfless. Ultimately, Alice and her family must weather a devastating betrayal and a shocking, violent series of events that will test their love and prove the power of forgiveness. A wise and astonishing novel about the different guises of love and the often steep tolls on the road to adulthood, The God of Animals is a haunting, unforgettable debut.

About the Author

Aryn Kyle is a graduate of the University of Montana writing program. Her first published short story, "Foaling Season", now the first chapter of this novel, won a National Magazine Award for Fiction for The Atlantic Monthly in 2004. Other stories by her have appeared in The Georgia Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New American Voices 2005, and Ploughshares. In 2005 she was awarded the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award, which is given to women writers at an early stage in their careers who demonstrate exceptional talent and promise. She was born in Illinois, but spent most of her childhood in Grand Junction, Colorado, and now lives in Missoula, Montana.

Message Edited by Bill_T on 06-06-2007 03:30 PM