The "Classic Catherine" Anniversary Edition of FUNERALS FOR HORSES is now
available for sale (with a new Author's Note by Catherine Ryan Hyde)!
"Brutally lyrical." -Publishers Weekly
"A rich blend of metaphors and genuine characters that will touch the
hearts of readers." -Library Journal
Ella Ginsberg's brother Simon seems to have disappeared off the face of the
earth. His clothing, shoes and watch were found abandoned near a freight
line track in Central California. His jockey shorts and wallet were never
found. The police have no clue, and Simon's wife Sarah had no warning that
any trouble was brewing.
Ella, the member of the family with the most severe mental health issues,
takes off on foot across much of California and Arizona, thinking she can
find Simon using nothing but her knowledge of the way he might think. Her
search leads her to the Navajo Nation in Arizona, where she is helped and
befriended by three Native Americans and an aged paint horse named Yozzie.
Chapters of her travels in the present are interspersed with chapters of
her past with Simon, who raised her, and who is still the most important
person in her shaky world. Only maybe it's not as unstable as it looks from
the outside. Maybe inside Ella a core of unexpected strength is emerging.
Maybe Ella is even stronger than the brother who held their lives together
for so long.
"A tale of sibling loyalty, madness, pain and redemption. In this
restrained but compelling narrative, Hyde movingly conveys the toll of
years of emotional damage." -Publishers Weekly