Coal Black Horse Paperback - 2008
by Robert Olmstead
When 14-year-old Robey Child is sent by his mother to search for his father, a doomed soldier, he witnesses the horrors of war both on and off the battlefield. Riding a talismanic coal black horse, he embarks upon a life-altering journey that will challenge him physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
From the rear cover
When Robey Childs's mother has a premonition about her husband, a soldier fighting in the Civil War, she does the unthinkable: she instructs her only child to find his father on the battlefield and bring him home.
At fourteen, wearing the coat his mother sewed to ensure his safety-- blue on one side, gray on the other-- Robey thinks he is off on a great adventure. But not far from home, his horse falters and he realizes the enormity of his task. It takes the gift of a powerful and noble coal black horse to show him how to undertake the most important journey of his life: with boldnesss, bravery, and self-possession. Yet even that horse is no match for the brutality and senselessness of war, no surrogate for the courage Robey needs to summon in its face. It's in the center of that landscape, as witness to the lawlessness and carnage around him, that he is forced to raise a gun for the first time in his life. When he returns to his mother, Robey Childs will be the best a man can be, and the worst, irrevocably scarred by all he has seen-- and all he has done.
When Robert Olmstead published his debut, River Dogs, he was compared to Richard Ford, Raymond Carver, Thomas McGuane. Since that time, Olmstead has received high praise for all of his work. But it's this book that is destined to become a classic. Coal Black Horse joins the pantheon of great war novels-- All Quiet on the Western Front, The Red Badge of Courage, The Naked and the Dead.
From the jacket flap
When Robey Childs's mother has a premonition about her husband, a soldier fighting in the Civil War, she does the unthinkable: she instructs her only child to find his father on the battlefield and bring him home.
At fourteen, wearing the coat his mother sewed to ensure his safety-- blue on one side, gray on the other-- Robey thinks he is off on a great adventure. But not far from home, his horse falters and he realizes the enormity of his task. It takes the gift of a powerful and noble coal black horse to show him how to undertake the most important journey of his life: with boldnesss, bravery, and self-possession. Yet even that horse is no match for the brutality and senselessness of war, no surrogate for the courage Robey needs to summon in its face. It's in the center of that landscape, as witness to the lawlessness and carnage around him, that he is forced to raise a gun for the first time in his life. When he returns to his mother, Robey Childs will be the best a man can be, and the worst, irrevocably scarred by all he has seen-- and all he has done.
When Robert Olmstead published his debut, River Dogs, he was compared to Richard Ford, Raymond Carver, Thomas McGuane. Since that time, Olmstead has received high praise for all of his work. But it's this book that is destined to become a classic. Coal Black Horse joins the pantheon of great war novels-- All Quiet on the Western Front, The Red Badge of Courage, The Naked and the Dead.
Details
- Title Coal Black Horse
- Author Robert Olmstead
- Binding Paperback
- Edition Reprint
- Pages 229
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Algonquin Books, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.A.
- Date 2008-05-20
- ISBN 9781565126015 / 1565126017
- Weight 0.65 lbs (0.29 kg)
- Dimensions 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.5 in (20.57 x 13.72 x 1.27 cm)
- Reading level 1110
-
Themes
- Chronological Period: 1851-1899
- Topical: Coming of Age
- Topical: Civil War
- Topical: Family
- Library of Congress subjects Historical fiction, Fathers and sons
- Dewey Decimal Code FIC
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