Genre Fiction
![Andrew Krivak - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B001JSE09Y.jpg)
Like the Appearance of Horses
A novel of one family, a century of war, and the promise of homecoming from Dayton Literary Peace Prize winner and National Book Award finalist Andrew Krivak
Rooted in the small, mountain town of Dardan, Pennsylvania, where patriarch Jozef Vinich settled after surviving World War I, Like the Appearance of Horses immerses us in the intimate lives of a family whose fierce bonds have been shaped by the great conflicts of the past century.
After Bexhet Konar escapes fascist Hungary and crosses the ocean to find Jozef, the man who saved his life in 1919, he falls in love with Jozef's daughter, Hannah, enlists in World War II, and is drawn into a personal war of revenge. Many years later, their youngest son, Samuel, is taken prisoner in Vietnam and returns home with a heroin addiction and deep physical and psychological wounds. As Samuel travels his own path toward healing, his son will graduate from Annapolis as a Marine on his way to Iraq.
In spare, breathtaking prose, Like the Appearance of Horses is the freestanding, culminating novel in Andrew Krivak's award-winning Dardan Trilogy, which began with The Sojourn and The Signal Flame. It is a story about borders drawn within families as well as around nations, and redrawn by ethnicity, prejudice, and war. It is also a tender story of love and how it is tested by duty, loyalty, and honor.
Rooted in the small, mountain town of Dardan, Pennsylvania, where patriarch Jozef Vinich settled after surviving World War I, Like the Appearance of Horses immerses us in the intimate lives of a family whose fierce bonds have been shaped by the great conflicts of the past century.
After Bexhet Konar escapes fascist Hungary and crosses the ocean to find Jozef, the man who saved his life in 1919, he falls in love with Jozef's daughter, Hannah, enlists in World War II, and is drawn into a personal war of revenge. Many years later, their youngest son, Samuel, is taken prisoner in Vietnam and returns home with a heroin addiction and deep physical and psychological wounds. As Samuel travels his own path toward healing, his son will graduate from Annapolis as a Marine on his way to Iraq.
In spare, breathtaking prose, Like the Appearance of Horses is the freestanding, culminating novel in Andrew Krivak's award-winning Dardan Trilogy, which began with The Sojourn and The Signal Flame. It is a story about borders drawn within families as well as around nations, and redrawn by ethnicity, prejudice, and war. It is also a tender story of love and how it is tested by duty, loyalty, and honor.
Editorial Reviews
Praise for Like the Appearance of Horses
Library Journal "Best Fiction Books of the Year (So Far)" selection
"An engaging book that raises provocative questions about how we perceive and engage with the past and is a further testament to Krivak's masterful abilities as a storyteller." -WBUR
"Forceful and absorbing." -WOSU
"A startling clarity characterizes [Krivak's] language, which can only be called luminous." - Washington Independent Review of Books
"Krivak's resplendent multigenerational family saga expertly braids the horrors of war with the struggles of those waiting for loved ones to return home." -Booklist (starred review)
"[An] intensely readable whopper of a book." -Library Journal (starred review)
"Subtle and nuanced." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Krivak impresses with this layered story of deferred homecomings and the elusive nature of peace." -Publishers Weekly
"Compelling and deftly crafted." -Midwest Book Review
"Andrew Krivak charts a razor-fine line between war and peace, damnation and redemption, estrangement and love, and along the way gives us a gorgeously detailed portrait of an American family. Whether he's writing about battle, the natural world, or the most private, searing matters of the heart, Krivak brings a rare mastery to the page, a synthesis of language and deep perception that delivers revelation after revelation. Like the Appearance of Horses is a major achievement." -Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
"Krivak's Homeric novel is at once intimate and sweeping, expanding an epic story set into motion in The Sojourn. Tenderly attentive to all that is given and taken by war, Like the Appearance of Horses is a graceful, heroic accomplishment that speaks to the costs of duty when violence is as constant as the Pennsylvania ...
Library Journal "Best Fiction Books of the Year (So Far)" selection
"An engaging book that raises provocative questions about how we perceive and engage with the past and is a further testament to Krivak's masterful abilities as a storyteller." -WBUR
"Forceful and absorbing." -WOSU
"A startling clarity characterizes [Krivak's] language, which can only be called luminous." - Washington Independent Review of Books
"Krivak's resplendent multigenerational family saga expertly braids the horrors of war with the struggles of those waiting for loved ones to return home." -Booklist (starred review)
"[An] intensely readable whopper of a book." -Library Journal (starred review)
"Subtle and nuanced." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Krivak impresses with this layered story of deferred homecomings and the elusive nature of peace." -Publishers Weekly
"Compelling and deftly crafted." -Midwest Book Review
"Andrew Krivak charts a razor-fine line between war and peace, damnation and redemption, estrangement and love, and along the way gives us a gorgeously detailed portrait of an American family. Whether he's writing about battle, the natural world, or the most private, searing matters of the heart, Krivak brings a rare mastery to the page, a synthesis of language and deep perception that delivers revelation after revelation. Like the Appearance of Horses is a major achievement." -Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
"Krivak's Homeric novel is at once intimate and sweeping, expanding an epic story set into motion in The Sojourn. Tenderly attentive to all that is given and taken by war, Like the Appearance of Horses is a graceful, heroic accomplishment that speaks to the costs of duty when violence is as constant as the Pennsylvania ...
Readers Top Reviews
CS
’Their appearance is like the appearance of horses, and like war horses, so they run.’ - Joel 2:4 This is a story of family, the wars fought through the generations of this family, as well as the impact it has on family. This story begins in 1933, as an eleven-year old girl is standing in front of the window watching as a boy is approaching their property, hunched over with a pack on his back, dressed in men’s clothing, but unlike the clothing the men wore in Dardan. She watches as he approaches the house and climbs the front steps, and knocks on the door. She waits, and after a time, he knocks again. And still she waits. When her mother comes from the kitchen, none too pleased to be interrupted and begins to chastise her, but Hannah whispers to her that the person outside is a stranger, but she doesn’t believe they need to be afraid of him. ’Rather (and she could not say why), he was someone she had been waiting for.’ ’He had come from someplace unlike any she or her mother could imagine, and she wondered if it was the place her father had spoken of, in a story told before she fell asleep one night, about a kingdom of people dressed like this boy, a kingdom so vast, its borders of mountains and rivers could not be crossed by foot in four phases of a moon.’ Her mother goes to the door and opens it, and he looks at the mother and then the daughter, and asks the mother if Mr. Vine is home, a question he’s practiced. The mother tells him he is not home, but invites him in to wait for her husband. ’To je v poriadku’, she tells him - ‘it’s okay’, ’Si hladný?’ she asks, - are you hungry? Not long after, Hannah’s father returns, and when he sees the man he’s traveled all this way to see, the words tumble out of his mouth in a rush, how and why he had traveled all this way to find him. This story begins in Dardan, Pennsylvania, where Jozef, Hannah’s father, came to live after the first World War. This is also the place where Krivak’s ’The Signal Flame’ is set. The story does go back in time and place, and shares the family stories related to the wars that followed. While war is a theme throughout this story, this isn’t a story as much about war, as it is a story of how it affects the lives of those who served, as well as the lives of those waiting, praying for their safe return. Affecting each generation involved in World War I, World War II as well as Vietnam. This is a story about family, and the impact these wars have on this family over the generations, as well as different responses to these individual wars by the families and those who wait for their return. But, it is also a story about love, loss, the impact on those who served, and the army values of honor, duty and loyalty. Despite the topic, this is a beautifully shared story written as though Krivak has thoughtfully chosen each word, each s...
