The Horse Whisperer

The Horse Whisperer is a 1995 novel by English author Nicholas Evans. The book was his debut novel, and gained significant success, becoming the 10th-best selling novel in the United States in 1995, selling over 15 million copies. This also makes it one of the best-selling books of all time. In 2003 the novel appeared at number 195 on the BBC's The Big Read poll of the UK's "best-loved novels". The book was made into a film, also titled The Horse Whisperer, directed by and starring Robert Redford. Summary The novel starts in upstate New York where a teenage girl, Grace Maclean, and her friend, Judith, go riding on their horses, Pilgrim and Gulliver, on a snowy morning. As they ride up an icy slope, Gulliver slips and hits Pilgrim. Both horses fall, dragging the girls into a road and into a collision with a tractor-trailer. Judith and Gulliver are killed, while Grace and Pilgrim are severely injured. Grace, left with a partially amputated right leg, is bitter and withdrawn. Grace's mother, Annie, is a workaholic magazine editor, and her father, Robert, is a lawyer. The different approaches taken by each of Grace's parents in dealing with the accident strain relationships within the family. Following the accident, Pilgrim is traumatised and uncontrollable, leading his caretakers to mistreat him and to suggest that he be put down. Annie refuses to allow her horse to be put down and hears of a 'horse whisperer', Tom Booker. She undertakes a long cross country journey with Pilgrim and Grace to Montana.