The Horse Whisperer
Nicholas Evans, 1995
★ 3.87 from 63.1k ratings on Goodreads
A Montana horseman with a gift for gentling what others have given up on, and a New York family driving west to find him. Warm and unhurried, with a tender pull toward home and memory, and a wry touch in the New York scenes.
Feels like tenderness, longing and hope. About home and memory.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you're drawn to stories about animals and children slowly recovering, or to wide Montana landscapes. Be aware that some readers find Annie hard to like, the adultery off-putting, and the ending strange.
Why read it
It offers a slow, generous look at patience and repair, and a portrait of a place that stays with you.
A page from the book
The particular thrill of being the first one awake after snowfall.
There was snow. The first fall of winter. And from the laterals of the fence up by the pond she could tell there must be almost a foot of it. With no deflecting wind, it was perfect and driftless, heaped in comical proportion on the branches of the six small cherry trees her father had planted last year. A single star shone in a wedge of deep blue above the woods. The girl looked down and saw a lace of frost had formed on the lower part of the window and she placed a finger on it, melting a small hole. She shivered, not from the cold, but from the thrill that this transformed world was for the moment entirely hers. And she turned and hurried to get dressed. What readers say
Readers often find the girl-and-horse recovery moving and emotionally involving, and many praise the Montana setting. Others dislike Annie and the adultery, call the story predictable, and find the ending bizarre or unsatisfying.
Nicholas Evans.Evans was a British journalist and television producer, not a horseman; The Horse Whisperer was his first novel and has sold more than fifteen million copies.
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Questions readers ask
- Is The Horse Whisperer for me?
- You may like it if you're drawn to stories about animals and children slowly recovering, or to wide Montana landscapes. Be aware that some readers find Annie hard to like, the adultery off-putting, and the ending strange.
- What is The Horse Whisperer like?
- Warm and unhurried, with a tender pull toward home and memory, and a wry touch in the New York scenes. Feels like tenderness, longing and hope. About home and memory.
- What should I read after The Horse Whisperer?
- If you liked The Horse Whisperer, try The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks), Better Than the Movies (Lynn Painter) and Tribute (Nora Roberts).
A taste of the feed
The case for a small life, made by a man who has lived one.
I am nothing special; of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts, and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough.
The Notebook · Nicholas Sparks
A mother, a sundress, a stolen base: the anatomy of a kept memory.
All the neighborhood kids played kickball in the street for hours that night, and the adults even joined us for a game. At one point, my mother was high-fiving Michael after stealing home base in her floral sundress and wedge sandals. That moment was pressed in my memories like a yellowed photograph in an antique album.
Better Than the Movies · Lynn Painter
What it takes to look at a ruin and see next spring.
Standing, she scanned the ruined lawns, the sagging fences, the sad old barn that stood soot gray and scarred from weather. There had been chickens once—or so she’d been told—a couple of pretty horses, tidy fields of crops, a small, thriving grove of fruit trees. She wanted to believe—maybe needed to believe—she could bring all that back. That by the next spring, and all the springs after, she could stand here and look at all the budding, the blooming, the business of what had been her grandmother’s.
Tribute · Nora Roberts
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