Grace McLean, a teenager, gets hit by a truck while riding her wild pony Pilgrim, on a cold winter day. Her friend Judith who was accompanying her gets killed in the same accident and Pilgrim -troubled by the accident- turns even more savage.
Grace’s mother Annie takes the pony to be tamed by a famous horse-trainer Tom Booker along with her physically and emotionally injured daughter to the Booker ranch in Montana. At the ranch, Grace learns to overcome her fear and to walk again and the horse and the girl reform their bond. Yet, the main plotline centers around Annie and Tom.
Tom Booker is a horse healer and cowboy with talents edging on mysticism. He can understand the inner language of a horse.
The reason Tom is called the horse whisperer is because his voice calms the horse and he can heal its wild spirit with his gentleness. Such men like Tom Booker were once called whisperers because they told secrets into horses’ ears.
In Montana, through meeting Tom Booker, Annie is changed in the way she looks at things. Then, she falls in love with Tom Booker, who is famous for having his way with attractive married women.
At the end, for Annie, everything falls apart and comes together at the same time.

comparing its book and movie versions. I had read The Horse Whisperer during the nineties when it was first on the best seller list. Then I saw the movie. As usual, I liked the book better.

the author’s expressive use of the language together with the novel’s perfectly drawn characters, especially Tom Booker’s dreamy, rugged cowboy character that hints at the heroism of legendary knights on white horses. Evans can describe, show, and express feelings -love, shame, blame, guilt, jealousy etc.- with great skill in his characters. It is true mastery to be able to do that with each character especially when there is such an assortment of characters.

Nicholas Evans is from Worcestershire, England. After studying law at Oxford University and graduating with first class honors, he worked as a journalist for three years on the Evening Chronicle in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
During the time when he produced films about US politics and the Middle-East for a current affairs TV program, Weekend World, he traveled to the United States several times.
In 1983 Nicholas Evans made a film about the British director David Lean who became a friend and persuaded Evans to switch from fact to fiction.
Evans’ first novel was published in the fall of 1995, as The Horse Whisperer, which was made into a movie by Robert Redford.
The Loop and The Smoke Jumper, Evans's second and third novels, were also international bestsellers.

This book is easy to read and pulls the reader into the story; therefore, I recommend it, even if you have seen the movie.

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Created Oct 05, 2004 at 12:27pm • Submit your own review...