UPDATE: Unfortunately, due to health issues, the March 8th event has been canceled. We wish Mr. West a speedy recovery!
. . . whose novel, Blind Your Ponies, has been chosen as the St. Peter Reads Winter Read for 2011. There will be a chance to meet the author and get books signed at the St. Peter Public Library from 4:30 – 5:30 on March 8th; then join us at the Melva Lind Interpretive Center at the Gustavus Adolphus College Arboretum at 7 p.m to hear the author speak.
Publisher’s description:
Hope is hard to come by in the hard-luck town of Willow Creek. Sam Pickett and five young men are about to change that.
Sam Pickett never expected to settle in this dried-up shell of a town on the western edge of the world. He’s come here to hide from the violence and madness that have shattered his life, but what he finds is what he least expects. There’s a spirit that endures in Willow Cree, Montana. It seems that every inhabitant of this forgotten outpost has a story, a reason for taking a detour to this place–or a reason for staying.
As the coach of the hapless high school basketball team (zero wins, ninety-three losses), Sam can’t help but be moved by the bravery he witnesses in the everyday lives of people–including his own young players–bearing their sorrows and broken dreams. How do they carry on, believing in a future that seems to be based on the flimsiest of promises? Drawing on the strength of the boys on the team, sharing the hope they display despite insurmountable odds, Sam finally begins to see a future worth living.
Author Stanley Gordon West has filled the town of Willow Creek with characters so vividly cast that they become real as relatives, and their stories–so full of humor and passion, loss and determination–illuminate a path into the human heart.
Read an excerpt and reader comments or check out the Star Tribune review.
February 20, 2011 at 12:55 pm |
Dear Mr. West,
I have just finished reading your novel “”Blind Your Ponies” and it was excellent.
Regards,
Rose Marie Ingersoll