The Truth about Horses - by Christy Cashman (Paperback)

About the Book

Following her mother's sudden death, fourteen-year-old Reese and her father lose one another, as well their family horse business, and go on separate, grief-stricken paths. In this tender tale of not giving up hope, Reese meets a selective mute and decides to trust a force beyond explanation to run the race her mother always knew she could.

Book Synopsis

Following her mother's sudden death, fourteen-year-old Reese and her father lose one another, as well their family horse business, and go on separate, grief-stricken paths. In this tender tale of not giving up hope, Reese meets a selective mute and decides to trust a force beyond explanation to run the race her mother always knew she could.

Review Quotes

"What an irresistibly readable novel Christy Cashman has written! Her young heroine Reese is an astonishing creation, warmly sympathetic, impulsive, unpredictable, brash, loyal and loving, endearing, exasperating, most of all memorable-a triumphant portrait of tumultuous adolescence in our time. The Truth About Horses plunges us into a beautifully evoked rural world in which horses are both magnificent beasts requiring human love and devotion, and iconic creatures out of mythology."
--Joyce Carol Oates, American novelist, short story writer, and essayist

"From its first gripping pages, this beautifully written, vividly imagined novel had me hooked. Anyone who remembers being a teen, loving horses, or losing a loved one will find deep meaning in this book."
--Sy Montgomery, New York Times best-selling author of How to Be a Good Creature and The Soul of an Octopus

"With all of the unpredictable thrill of a horseback ride, The Truth About Horses took me deep into the mind of a teenage girl searching for her post-traumatic truth. It is a beautiful, moving story that I'm glad to know and certain to remember."
--Harry Connick Jr., Emmy Award-winning actor and Grammy Award-winning musician

"This is a heartwarming novel about facing down the perils of adversity. It's also an examination of how and why we become stronger at the broken places. Christy Cashman has written a book for everyone, young and old, who wants to know about the elemental gallop of the heart."
--Colum McCann, author of Apeirogon and Let the Great World Spin

"The Truth About Horses had me hooked on page one. I set aside everything else and just kept reading, sleep be damned. It is a timeless story about growing up in a world that is less than perfect and trying to figure out who you are through all of those challenges--something each of us faces at some point. Reese's strength, wit, wisdom, and vulnerability offer up a multi-faceted character and a person I would like to know. The novel is a tour de force."
--Judith Laster, Festival Director, The Woods Hole Film Festival

"In Christy Cashman's first novel The Truth About Horses, the author proves herself to be a worthy successor to Harper Lee. Cashman's protagonist, Reese, instantly captures the reader in the same way that Scout does in To Kill a Mockingbird--and takes the reader with her into her world for a magical examination of the human heart."
--Arthur T. Vanderbilt II, author of Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt

"The truth about The Truth About Horses is that it is impossible to put down. With simple ingredients of hay and humor, family and fury, Christy Cashman has spun an unstoppable feast. She shows us how hooves and hearts beat the same truth to light and reminds us laughter and tears need not be served as separate courses."
--Sally Taylor, singer, songwriter, and founder of Consenses

"Christy Cashman has written a beautiful, thrilling tale about a teenaged girl's journey from fear to courage, from anger to forgiveness, from broken-heartedness to openness. The Truth About Horses is so much about the mysterious forces, within us and around us, that are always there to guide us, and the way in which people enter our lives exactly when we need them--if only we'll let them."
--Jane Seymour, actress, designer, and author of The Road Ahead

"The Truth About Horses is a beautifully written and engaging story. Christy Cashman easily sets the tone with her te