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1. Following her accident, Annemarie puts her riding days behind her and moves her life in a completely different direction. Yet the accident and the loss of Harry haunt her and influence her life in ways she doesn’t even initially comprehend (e.g. she names her dog Harriet). Do you think we can ever truly leave the past in the past, or does it always follow us? Do you think some people are better-equipped to move on from tragedy than others, and why?

2. The mother-daughter relationship can be a very complicated one, and it is a theme that runs throughout the book. Annemarie’s relationship with her mother is strained, just as her relationship with her own teenage daughter is. Annemarie says that motherhood never came naturally to her. Do you think that she let her unresolved problems with own mother affect the way she dealt with Eva? Do you think such cycles always repeat themselves in families, or can they be broken? Why do you think the mother-daughter relationship in particular can be such a volatile one?

3. Mutti helps her ALS-stricken husband end his life. Do you think she did the right thing? Even if it was understandable in this case, should she have been punished for breaking the law? Is helping a seriously ill person die the ultimate act of compassion, or is it playing God?

4. During a steamy encounter with Jean-Claude, which she initiates after he comforts her about Hurrah being taken away, Annemarie stops things before they go too far. Do you think that acting on lustful feelings is a typical reaction for someone going through a difficult time? Annemarie knows, even when she approaches Jean-Claude, that she really loves Dan. Do you think the power of love is ultimately stronger than that of lust?

5. Do you think Annemarie does the right thing when she dyes Hurrah’s stripes in order to hide his identity once it is finally revealed? What would you have done in that situation?

6. Annemarie had a relationship with Harry that is unlike any she ever has with a human being, and she forms an equally strong bond with Hurrah. Eva also thrives when she is around horses, particularly Flicka. Do you think that people can have a stronger bond with animals than they do with other humans? What is it that animals can give to us that other people cannot?

1. At the beginning of the book, Annemarie doesn’t let anyone in her family watch her as she rides Hurrah, preferring to keep this side of herself private. Do you think that everybody has a secret self, and can hiding an important part of yourself from your loved ones ever be a healthy thing?

2. Annemarie is shocked to learn how hard it was for her mother to send her away to train with Marjory when she was a teenager, just as Annemarie is afraid to send Eva away to train with Nathalie. How hard do you think it is for women to understand their mothers and what they went through in raising them, even when they are going through an identical situation? How difficult do you think it is, in any situation, to get out of your own head and put yourself in the place of the other person?

3. Annemarie runs out on her romantic birthday dinner with Dan after he presents her with earrings instead of an engagement ring. Do you think she overreacted, or do you understand why she was so upset?

4. When Eva fails at her first event, she initially wants to quit riding, just as Annemarie did following her accident more than 20 years before. How difficult do you think it is to brush yourself off and move on after a serious failure? Do you think failure is more likely to ultimately make a person stronger or break a spirit forever?

5. How do you think the loss of the Old Man of the Mountain foreshadows the events that are about to take place in Annemarie and Eva’s lives? Can you think of any other examples of foreshadowing in the book?

6. Annemarie is sure, almost from the start, that she wants to take custody of Jeremy following the death of Roger and Sonja. Do you think that most women would be able to move past their resentments (especially if, as in this case, their husband left them for the other woman) in order to raise the child of their ex and his new wife?

7. After her father’s death, Eva feels guilty for being upset about missing her horse, Joe, instead of focusing solely on her father. Why do you think guilt is so often tied in with grief?

8. At the end of the book, Annemarie finally lets Dan watch her as she rides Hurrah, and she also makes a jump for the first time since her accident. What life change leading up to this moment, from her marriage to new motherhood to watching Eva make a successful jump at her second big event, do you think was most crucial to Annemarie’s healing?

Author photo by Lynne Harty

Sara Gruen at the Great Ape Trust

Sara and Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh talk about Ape House

Author photo by Lynne Harty

As a world-class equestrienne and Olympic
contender, Annemarie Zimmer lived for the thrill
of flight atop a strong, graceful animal. Then,
at eighteen, a tragic accident destroyed her
riding career and Harry, her beloved and
distinctively marked horse.

Now, twenty years later, Annemarie is coming
home to her dying father’s New Hampshire horse
farm. Jobless and abandoned, she is bringing her
troubled teenaged daughter to this place of pain
and memory, where ghosts of an unresolved youth
still haunt the fields and stables—and where hope
lives in the eyes of the handsome, gentle
veterinarian Annemarie loved as a girl, and in the
seductive allure of a trainer with a magic touch.

But everything will change once again with one
glimpse of a red-and-white-striped gelding
startlingly familiar to the one Annemarie lost in
another lifetime. And an obsession is born
that could shatter her fragile world…

“Like The Horse Whisperer, Gruen’s
polished debut is a tale of human
healing set against the primal
world of horses…a moving story of
loss, survival and renewal.”
-Publishers Weekly

Available for purchase:

Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Brookline Brooksmith • Powells • IndieBound

Maybe it’s her approaching 40th birthday…
or her ex-husband’s new wife and baby…
or Eva, her rebellious 16-year-old daughter—
but the only time Annemarie Zimmer feels
any peace is when she’s on horseback, flying
like the wind. Even her relationship with Dan—
the man who put the reins back in Annemarie’s
hands after a tragic accident left her bitter and
afraid—is on shaky ground. Could the fact that
she can’t have any more children be the reason
he hasn’t proposed? Annemarie is well aware
that the past is still a cloud on her horizon, and
now that Eva is demanding to ride competitively,
it’s getting darker by the minute, conjuring up
images she would rather forget.

Then, suddenly, another heart-wrenching
turn of events forces Annemarie to take stock
of her life. Will she finally learn that where
there’s hope, there’s happiness?
All she has to do is reach out…

“Even if you are horseless
(my deepest sympathies),
you will love this novel.”
-Rita Mae Brown

Available for purchase:

Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Brookline Brooksmith • Powells • IndieBound!