God of Animals

From an award-winning and talented young novelist comes one of the most exciting fiction debuts in years: a breathtaking and beautiful novel set on a horse ranch in small-town Colorado.

When her older sister runs away to marry a rodeo cowboy, Alice Winston is left to bear the brunt of her family's troubles--a depressed, bedridden mother; a reticent, overworked father; and a run-down horse ranch. As the hottest summer in fifteen years unfolds and bills pile up, Alice is torn between dreams of escaping the loneliness of her duty-filled life and a longing to help her father mend their family and the ranch.

To make ends meet, the Winstons board the pampered horses of rich neighbors, and for the first time Alice confronts the power and security that class and wealth provide. As her family and their well-being become intertwined with the lives of their clients, Alice is drawn into an adult world of secrets and hard truths, and soon discovers that people--including herself--can be cruel, can lie and cheat, and every once in a while, can do something heartbreaking and selfless. Ultimately, Alice and her family must weather a devastating betrayal and a shocking, violent series of events that will test their love and prove the power of forgiveness.

A wise and astonishing novel about the different guises of love and the often steep tolls on the road to adulthood, The God of Animals is a haunting, unforgettable debut.

Author: Aryn Kyle
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 03/01/2008
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.63lbs
Size: 8.02h x 5.74w x 0.74d
ISBN: 9781416533252

Accelerated Reader:
Reading Level: 5.6
Point Value: 18
Interest Level: Upper Grade
Quiz #/Name: 125275 / God of Animals


Award: Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award - Nominee


Review Citation(s):
People Weekly 03/24/2008 pg. 53

About the Author
Kyle, Aryn: - Aryn Kyle is the author of the bestselling novel The God of Animals and a graduate of the University of Montana writing program. Her short stories have appeared in Ploughshares, The Georgia Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New American Voices 2005, Best American Short Stories 2007, and The Atlantic Monthly, for which her story Foaling Season won a National Magazine Award. She is also the recipient of the American Library Association's Alex Award, the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers'Award, and others. She lives in New York.

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