The Hearts of Horses - Molly Gloss

With an elegant sweetness and a pitch-perfect sense of western life reminiscent of Annie Dillard, Gloss's breakout novel is a remarkable story about the connections between people and animals and how they touch one another in the most unexpected and profound ways. n nAn elegant, heartwarming story about the profound connections between people and animals n nIn the winter of 1917, nineteen-year-old Martha Lessen saddles her horses and heads for a remote county in eastern Oregon, looking for work gentling wild horses. She chances on a rancher, George Bliss, who is willing to hire her on.

Many of his regular hands are off fighting the war, and he glimpses, beneath her showy rodeo garb, a shy but strong-willed girl with a serious knowledge of horses. So begins the irresistible tale of a young but determined woman trying to make a go of it in a man s world. Over the course of several long, hard winter months, many of the townsfolk witness Martha talking in low, sweet tones to horses believed beyond repair getting miraculous, almost immediate results.

It's with this gift that she earns their respect, and a chance to make herself a home.n