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“Aryn Kyle's stunning debut is a wry and moving look at a disappearing way of life…an astonishingly assured debut…powerfully understated, ruefully funny…it's early Annie Proulx to whom she bears particular comparison.”
— Vogue
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“[A] first novel that's so strong, startling, and moving, that it's a thoroughbred from the first page…In stark, gorgeous prose, Kyle tunnels into the dark heart of the connections between people and place…The God of Animals does what the best fiction does—it creates a whole living, breathing world and unfolds it in front of us, granting us entry into a place that, like this author, is impossible to forget.”
— Boston Globe
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“Aryn Kyle's talent astounded everyone. She takes a clichéd story—a lost girl approaching womanhood in a man's world—and develops it in unpredictable, emotionally thrilling ways.”
— Bookmarks
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“[A] confident debut novel.”
— Publishers Weekly
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“Lily Rabe portrays Alice Winston, the 12-year-old narrator of this unforgettable novel. With subtle attention to detail Rabe describes Alices life with her parents on a failing horse farm. Especially memorable is Rabes understated depiction of Alices bedridden, emotionally crippled mother. Rabe also provides a nuanced portrayal of Alices father, who is emotionally distant and willing to do anything for financial stability. The hopelessness of Alices situation is fully captured in Rabes delivery of her loneliness, her search for love with a male English teacher, and her horror as she watches the death of a promising colt. The narrators vocal range and skills produce an amazing performance.”
— AudioFile
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Aryn Kyle's stunning debut is a wry and moving look at a disappearing way of life...an astonishingly assured debut... powerfully understated, ruefully funny... it's early Annie Proulx to whom she bears particular comparison
— Megan O'Grady, Vogue
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[A] first novel that's so strong, startling, and moving, that it's a thoroughbred from the first page... In stark, gorgeous prose, Kyle tunnels into the dark heart of the connections between people and place.... The God of Animals does what the best fiction does -- it creates a whole living, breathing world and unfolds it in front of us, granting us entry into a place that, like this author, is impossible to forget.
— Caroline Leavitt, The Boston Globe
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[A] beautiful first novel.
— Carolyn See, The Washington Post
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[An] involving and accomplished first novel... Kyle has a gift for creating character, for making even the most minor players in Alice's drama come alive on the page. And she ties up the strands of her plot in nervy and satisfying ways, so that nothing is predictable as The God of Animals twists and turns toward its conclusion. Aryn Kyle's debut delivers all the fun of the books about horses that you loved as a kid but with the added weight and seriousness of a novel for grown-ups.
— Francine Prose, People
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A memorable novel gracefully compares and contrasts the vast landscapes of the human condition -- people butting up against each other, their natural surroundings and, most significantly, themselves. To find these elements expertly handled in a debut novel -- as they are in The God of Animals-is reason for readers to rejoice.
— Carol Memmott, USA Today
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With her debut novel, Aryn Kyle seems poised to become one of America's next great authors.
— Parade
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Aryn Kyle is one of those handfuls of first-time novelists whose arrival trumpets what might be a major talent. Kyle's The God of Animals is a coming-of-age tale that manages to be both elegiac and hard-nosed. It's an impressive debut.
— Dorman Shindler, The Star Ledger
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In Aryn Kyle's affecting first novel, The God of Animals, the ordeals of horses believably reflect and frame the foolishness and suffering of their so-called masters....Kyle's writing is strong, and Alice's story sucks us into its stringent world, making us curious and worried...It's a tribute to Kyle's honest, unshowy writing that readers will want, with accelerating urgency, to find out what happens.
— The San Francisco Chronicle
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Kyle writes perceptively in Alice's voice, drawing the reader into the understated drama of this seminal summer in her life...the author paints an evocative portrait of the vast country in which her characters struggle. Raised in Colorado herself, Kyle knows well the territory of which she writes, from its mind-boggling beauty to the aftermath of drought and flooding. This captivating saga of a loving but dysfunctional family, melded with an ode to the harsh splendor of the West in the tradition of Kent Haruf's Plainsong, is surely the start of a promising career.
— Bookpage
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An impressive debut.
— The Seattle Post-Intelligencer