From the author of The Glass Castle and Hang the Moon--"Walls
vividly depicts her astonishing, resilient grandmother with a lightness
of touch that is plainspoken yet heartfelt" (Chicago Tribune). Half
Broke Horses has transfixed readers everywhere.
"Those old cows knew trouble was coming before we did." So begins the
story of Lily Casey Smith, Jeannette Walls's no-nonsense, resourceful,
and spectacularly compelling grandmother. By age six, Lily was helping
her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a
frontier town--riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to
her job. She learned to drive a car and fly a plane. And, with her
husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children,
one who is Jeannette's memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls,
unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle.
Lily survived tornadoes, droughts, floods, the Great Depression, and the
most heartbreaking personal tragedy. She bristled at prejudice of all
kinds--against women, Native Americans, and anyone else who didn't fit
the mold. Rosemary Smith Walls always told Jeannette that she was like
her grandmother, and in this true-life novel, Jeannette Walls channels
that kindred spirit. Half Broke Horses is Laura Ingalls Wilder for
adults, as riveting and dramatic as Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa or
Beryl Markham's West with the Night. Destined to become a classic, it
will transfix readers everywhere.
