Funerals for Horses, Catherine Ryan Hyde's critically acclaimed first novel (initially published in 1997), is a deeply felt and heartrending story of redemption and love, disappearance and faithfulness, by the author who would go on to be known for the best-selling Don't Let Me Go and Pay It Forward. Ella Ginsberg's brother, Simon, has disappeared. 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 had no warning that anything was wrong. Ella 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. Ella has serious mental health issues, and Simon, who raised her, 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 her family's lives together for so long.
Author
Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of 44 published and forthcoming books. Her newer releases are Dreaming of Flight, Boy Underground, Seven Perfect Things, My Name is Anton, Brave Girl, Quiet Girl, Stay, Have You Seen Luis Velez?, Just After Midnight, Heaven Adjacent, The Wake Up, Allie and Bea, Say Goodbye for Now, Leaving Blythe River, Ask Him Why, Worthy, The Language of Hoofbeats, Take Me With You, Walk Me Home, and When I Found You. Forthcoming are So Long, Chester Wheeler, and Just a Regular Boy.. Other novels include When You Were Older, Where We Belong, Don’t Let Me Go, Second Hand Heart, Jumpstart the World, Becoming Chloe, Love in the Present Tense, The Year of My Miraculous Reappearance, Chasing Windmills, The Day I Killed James, and Diary of a Witness. She is co-author, with publishing industry blogger Anne R. Allen, of How to be a Writer in the E-Age: a Self-Help Guide. Her bestselling 1999 novel Pay It Forward was made into a major Warner Brothers motion picture. It was chosen by the American Library Association for its Best Books for Young Adults list, and translated into more than two dozen languages for distribution in over 30 countries. Simon & Schuster released a special 15th anniversary edition in December of ’14. Pay It Forward: Young Readers Edition, an age-appropriate edited edition of the original novel, was released by Simon & Schuster in August of ‘14. It is suitable for children as young as eight. You can learn much more about Catherine at www.catherineryanhyde.com
