Falling from Horses - by Molly Gloss (Paperback)

About the Book

From the bestselling author of The Hearts of Horses and The Jump-Off Creek, an absorbing, plainspoken, elegantly rendered novel about a young cowboy who escapes a family tragedy and travels to Hollywood to become a stunt rider in the movies

Book Synopsis

"A beautiful, moving novel, cut from the American heartwood." --Ursula K. Le Guin

"Clear-eyed, breathtaking . . . . Filled with heart and insight." -- Gail Tsukiyama, author of The Samurai's Garden

Through the wide eyes and lofty dreams of two people trying to make their mark on the world, bestselling author Molly Gloss weaves a remarkable story of humans and horses, hope and heartbreak, told by one of the most winning narrators ever to walk off the page.

In 1938, nineteen-year-old ranch hand Bud Frazer leaves behind the family ranch at Echol Creek and heads to Hollywood for a different kind of horseback riding: he wants to be a stunt rider in the movies. On the bus ride south, Bud meets Lily Shaw, a young woman who dreams of being a screenwriter. Lily Shaw is bold and outspoken, more confident than her small frame and bookish looks seem to allow. The two strike up an unlikely kinship that carries them through their tumultuous days in Hollywood and the rest of their lives beyond.

In this moving follow-up to The Hearts of Horses, beloved author Molly Gloss has crafted a remarkable tale of hope and heartbreak, told by one of the most winning narrators ever to walk off the page.

Review Quotes

"Falling From Horses is a clear-eyed, breathtaking look at a small corner of life unknown to most: cowboy stunt riders in 1930's Hollywood. Gloss adeptly brings to life characters in search of the American Dream, while illuminating the "myth of the cowboy West" and the harsh realities that come along with it. A moving story filled with heart and insight by an author whose love of the American landscape rings loudly through each page." - Gail Tsukiyama, author of A Hundred Flowers and The Samurai's Garden
"A beautifully crafted story of the friendship that develops between two young people...Molly Gloss makes the little-seen life of a movie stuntman and a back-lot script girl come alive in this entertaining and often touching tale." - Phillip Margolin, author of Worthy Brown's Daughter
"Hollywood glamour has no place in the rough-and-tumble cowboy movies being churned out by studios in the late 1930s. That's discovered by Bud Frazer, a young man from a ranching family looking to make his way as a stunt rider and, in the process, distance himself from personal tragedy. On the bus ride there, he strikes up what would become a lifelong friendship with an aspiring screenwriter. What follows are challenges for both Bud and his new friend Lily as they try to make their dreams reality. Gloss strips away any romantic notions of ranching life or moviemaking with detailed descriptions of long days of work and the tricks used on horses in the cowboy flicks. Bud is a marvelous narrator--direct, self-effacing, and descriptive, looking back with some bemusement at the brashness of his 19-year-old self. The emotions stirred by his tale are as honest as a hard day's work during a roundup. The novel is sturdy in its simplicity, a send-up of the cowboy myth that replaces it with something more valuable--a cowboy with heart." - Booklist
"I read Falling from Horses in two gulps. The writing is gorgeous, the setting so beautifully realized, both time and place, the narrative voice unforgettable, and all the characters so real and compelling. Tremendous, page-turning. . . . I could not have loved it more." - Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and The Jane Austen Book Club
"The story of a boy growing up into a man by way of ambition, adventure, catastrophe, love, and grief. A beautiful, moving novel, cut from the American heartwood." - Ursula K. Le Guin, author of Lavinia and The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories
"Molly Gloss is always exploring the dangerous place where reality and imagination combine to form the American West, and never more than in this book, plunging as it does into the heart of the dream machine. She has a tremendous gift for bringing a situation alive, so be ready: you're about to live these lives. It's a great experience." - Kim Stanley Robinson, author of Shaman and 2312

About the Author

MOLLY GLOSS is the best-selling author of The Hearts of Horses, The Jump-Off Creek, The Dazzle of Day, and Wild Life, and has won the PEN Center West Fiction Prize, the PNW Booksellers Award, the Oregon Book Award, and the James Tiptree Jr. Award.