Wake of Forgiveness

Bruce Machart

ISBN 10: 0547521944 / ISBN 13: 9780547521947

Published by Harper Paperbacks, 2011

About this Item

On a moonless Texas night in 1895, an ambitious young landowner suffers the loss of the only woman he s ever been fond of when his wife dies while giving birth to the couple s fourth boy, Karel. From an early age, Karel proves so talented on horseback that his father enlists him to ride in acreage-staked races against his neighbors. But Karel is forever haunted by thoughts of the mother he never knew and the bloodshot blame in his father s eyes, and permanently marked by the yoke he and his brothers are forced to wear to plow the family fields. Confident only in the saddle, Karel is certain that the horse wants the whip the same way he wants his pop s strap . . . the closest he ever gets to his father s touch. In the winter of 1910, Karel rides in the ultimate high-stakes race against a powerful Spanish patriarch and his alluring daughters. Hanging in the balance are his father s fortune, his brother s futures, and his own fate. Fourteen years later, with the stake of the race still driven hard between him and his brothers, Karel is finally forced to dress the wounds of his past and salvage the tattered fabric of his family.Reminiscent of Kent Haruf s portrayals of hope amidst human heartbreak and Cormac McCarthy s finely hewn evocations of the American Southwest, Bruce Machart s striking debut is as well wrought as it is riveting. It compels us to consider the inescapable connections between sons and their mothers, between landscape and family, and between remembrance and redemption.

Seller Inventory # CIN0547521944G

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Wake of Forgiveness
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0547521944
• ISBN 13: 9780547521947
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Reminiscent of Kent Haruf and Cormac McCarthy, Bruce Machart’s debut novel is a dark family saga set in the American Southwest.

 

On a moonless Texas night in 1895, an ambitious young landowner suffers the loss of “the only woman he’s ever been fond of” when his wife dies during childbirth with the couple’s fourth son, Karel. The boy is forever haunted by thoughts of the mother he never knew, by the bloodshot blame in his father’s eyes, and permanently marked by the yoke he and his brothers are forced to wear to plow the family fields. From an early age, Karel proves so talented on horseback that his father enlists him to ride in acreage-staked horseraces against his neighbors. In the winter of 1910, Karel rides in the ultimate high-stakes race against a powerful Spanish patriarch and his alluring daughters: hanging in the balance are his father’s fortune, his brothers' futures, and his own fate.

About the Author

BRUCE MACHART is the author of The Wake of Forgiveness. His fiction has appeared in Zoetrope: All-Story, Glimmer Train, Story, One Story and elsewhere, and has been anthologized in Best Stories of the American West. A graduate of the MFA program at Ohio State University, Machart is Assistant Professor of English at Bridgewater State University, and he lives in Hamilton, Massachusetts.