About the Author

Nicholas Evans studied at Oxford University and worked as a newspaper reporter, TV producer and screenwriter before writing four bestselling novels. His first book, the #1 New York Times bestseller The Horse Whisperer was made into a movie directed by Robert Redford. He lives in Devon with his wife, singer/songwriter Charlotte Gordon Cumming.

Reviews

The author of the best-selling Horse Whisperer brings us the tale of Tom Bedford, from his childhood in an English boarding school to Hollywood with his movie-star mother and now to Montana, where he lives alone after a failed marriage. The news of the arrest of his son, a Marine stationed in Iraq, for war crimes brings up painful memories of Tom's past and a shocking secret he has never told anyone. The story alternates between scenes of Tom's turbulent childhood, as he struggles to understand the hidden depths of events around him, and the present, as he attempts to reconnect with his estranged son and atone for the sins of the past. Verdict In his first novel in five years Evans displays a sure hand at drawing characters and their motivations and settings as diverse as a gloomy boarding school, glamorous Hollywood, and the wide-open spaces of the West. This should appeal to all lovers of good storytelling.-Dan Forrest, Western Kentucky Univ., Bowling Green Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.

As a student at the Ashlawn Preparatory School in 1959 England, eight-year-old, cowboy-crazy Tommy Bedford, the hero of Evans's latest outdoor soap opera, is teased for being a bed wetter and gets the shock of his young life when he learns that his sister, glamorous "Next Big Thing" actress Diane Reed, is really his mother. Soon afterwards, she and Tommy move to L.A., where Diane falls for TV cowboy Ray Montane, and their tortured relationship leads to a horrifying act of violence that has lifelong repercussions for Tommy. In a parallel, present-day plot, 50-ish Tom, now a writer and documentary filmmaker who specializes in the American West, lives in Montana, is divorced and estranged from his adult son, Danny, who has been accused of committing an atrocity while serving in Iraq, for which he will be tried in a military court. Alternating past and present, Evans expertly juggles his twin narratives until they come shatteringly together as father and son yield to the combined weight of the secrets they hide. Combining elements of the prep school drama, the Hollywood novel, the western, and the war story, Evans (The Horse Whisperer) skillfully mixes genres to create a real crowd-pleaser. (Oct.) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.