The Sound of the Trees: A Novel - Hardcover

Robert Gatewood

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805068023 ISBN 13: 9780805068023

Publisher: Henry Holt and Co., 2002

Synopsis

An extraordinary debut that brings together a hypnotic quest, a thrilling Western, and an unforgettable love story.

Set in the 1930s, The Sound of the Tree tells the story of Trude Mason, who, seeking to escape a brutal father and a violent past, sets out with his mother on horseback on a grueling journey through the extreme desert and mountainous terrain of southwestern New Mexico. Their destination is Colorado, a place Trude imagines to be abundantly fertile, wild, and free. But along the way, Trude finds himself in the clutches of a small New Mexican border town, once again a victim of brutality and lawlessness, this time in the form of a pitiless sheriff and his posse. When they arrest and sentence to death a young woman whose life Trude has saved, he must face an explosive collision between conscience and self-preservation.

Affecting yet unsentimental, written in piercing, unadorned prose, Robert Gatewood's The Sound of the Trees marks the arrival of a vital new literary voice.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Gatewood was born in 1974. He spends time in Colorado, New Mexico, and western New York. The Sound of the Trees is his first novel.

From Publishers Weekly

Taking its title from a Robert Frost poem, this engrossing, lyrical novel marks the debut of a writer of great promise. Set during the Depression, the narrative follows 18-year-old Trude Mason as he takes his mother and flees on horseback from his abusive alcoholic father, leaving behind their foreclosed New Mexican ranch for the high country of Colorado. After mourning his mother's death from a rattlesnake bite and braving incredible hardships not the least of which is the approaching winter Trude is bushwhacked and stabbed by an Englishman traveling with a beautiful black girl who is his captive. Eventually, Trude makes his way to a fledgling frontier town where a sinister mayor holds sway. The ambitious mayor dreams of parlaying the coming of the railroad into the creation of a dominant center of commerce on the western frontier, elevating himself to political prominence. Trude discovers that the girl, Delilah, is also in town and has been jailed for the theft of a rake. His thwarted attempts to free her evolve into a classic David and Goliath struggle. When an Eastern magazine writer comes to town, the power-crazed mayor decides to hang Delilah, sending a message to the world that the town is ruled by law and by him. The boy's desperate and heroic struggle against time and insurmountable odds invests the denouement with gut-wrenching tension. At times repetitive and marred by off-key imagery Delilah's hair "fell past her shoulders like nests of stone"; the mayor's boots "sprang from the floor like hand-rubbed coals" this is nevertheless an uncommonly good first novel, strongly evocative of Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0805068023
• ISBN 13: 9780805068023
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304