“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 Short Stories “Molly Gloss is always exploring that 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 “Falling from Horses is a beautifully crafted story of the friendship that develops between two young people—a ranch hand and an aspiring screenwriter—as they try to make it in the movies in 1930s Hollywood. 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 of a naive young man and woman who are trying to live their dreams.” — Phillip Margolin, New York Times best-selling author of Worthy Brown's Daughter
“Falling From Horses is a clear-eyed, breathtaking look at a small corner of life unknown to most: cowboy stunt riders in 1930s 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 “The acute sense of time and place, coupled with a cast of characters drawn with unsentimental but abiding affection, makes for a hypnotic read.” — KirkusReviews
If you’re like me, and wouldn’t want to go a single day without reading, you turn to books for all kinds of reasons. You read because it’s rainy outside. You read because it’s sunny outside. You read when you’re tired and when you can’t fall asleep. One of the perennial motivations for reading is escape, of course. […]