Spanning two years on the circuit, from Kentucky and California to New York and Paris, Jane Smiley's Horse Heaven puts us among trainers and track brats, horse-obsessed girls, nervy jockeys, billionaire owners and restless wives. Here is a trainer of integrity and his opposite: a wicked prince of the tract, headed for still another swindle; here are the gamblers and hangers-on. And here are the magnificent Thoroughbreds themselves, from the filly orphaned at birth to the brown horse who always wins by a nose, a lovable "claimer" who passes from owner to owner on a heartwrenching journey down from the winner's circle.
Jane Smiley is the author of nine previous works of fiction, including The Age of Grief, The Greenlanders, Ordinary Love & Good Will, Moo, and A Thousand Acres for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. She lives in northern California.
Listen to this excerpt of Horse Heaven read by Tony Award Nominee Mary Beth Hurt, courtesy of Random House Audio.
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