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Comments about the hardcover edition.

"Smiley's horses almost steal the show from the humans in this symphonic celebration of the byzantine world of thoroughbred horse racing--although a mischievous Jack Russell terrier named Eileen rules supreme whenever the all-seeing narrative eye pans her way.… Smiley enriches her electrifying and at timnes melodramatic tale of two years on the thoroughbred racing circut with a wealth of intimate knowledge about horse breeding, training, and racing, not to mention sensuous description and supple human and equine psychology." --Booklist (starred review)

"Smiley, it turns out, knows a prodigious amount about Thoroughbreds, and she is as good at describing the stages of their lives, their temperaments and personalities as she is in chronicling the ambitions, financial windfalls and ruins, love affairs, partings and reconciliations of her large cast of human characters.... Written with high spirits and enthusiasm, distinguished by Smiley's wry humor (as in Moo), the novel gallops into the home stretch without losing momentum." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A fast-paced, fetchingly detailed, wide-angled view of the world of horse breeding--and racing--and another lively illustration of Smiley's industrious literary work-ethic and gift for trasmuting the products of her obviously extensive research into compelling fiction." --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Spanning two years on the circuit, from Kentucky and California to New York and Paris, Horse Heaven puts us among trainers and track brats, horse-obsessed girls, nervy jockeys, billionaire owners and restless wives. Here is the trainer of dazzling integrity and his opposite: a wicked prince of the tract, headed for still another swindle; here are the gamblers and hangers-on. And in an amazing feat of imagination, here are the magnificent Thoroughbreds themselves, from the filly orphaned at birth to the brown horse who always wins by a nose, a lovable "claimer" who passes from owner to owner on a heartwrenching journey down from the winner's circle.

All the constant excitement of racing courses through a novel that opens up a fascinating world even as it moves us with its exploration of wanting, loving, and striving; of our mysterious bond with animals; and, above all, of our profound desire to connect-emotionally, sexually, spiritually-with each other.

About the Author: Jane Smiley is the author of nine previous works of fiction, including The Age of Grief, The Greenlanders, Ordinary Love and Good Will, A Thousand Acres, for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and Moo. She lives in northern California.

Written by Jane Smiley - Audio book performed by Mary Beth Hurt - Abridged Fiction - 4 CASSETTES - 6 hours

Publisher, Random House Audiobooks (April 2000)