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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.
"[S]howcases Krivak's penchant for evocative prose...Krivak evokes hardship through deftly worded passages...Though combat plays a big part, this is a subtle and nuanced work." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"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)
"This intensely readable whopper of a book provides a nuanced perspective on the human struggle to survive war through the lens of Hungary and the Roma people. The mystical connection to family and nature across space and time in the form of a bear provides a special twist. Highly recommended." —Library Journal (starred review)
"[A] bleak and stirring work...Krivak impresses with this layered story of deferred homecomings and the elusive nature of peace." —Publishers Weekly
"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 mountains that anchor and separate this indelible family we've come to know so personally." —Asako Serizawa, author of Inheritors
This information about Like the Appearance of Horses was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Dario Prager
Andrew Krivak is an award-winning writer whose books include Mule Boy (forthcoming from Bellevue Literary Press in February 2026); The Bear, a National Endowment for the Arts Big Read selection; and the freestanding novels of the Dardan Trilogy: The Sojourn, a National Book Award finalist and winner of both the Chautauqua Prize and Dayton Literary Peace Prize; The Signal Flame, a Chautauqua Prize finalist; and Like the Appearance of Horses, a Library Journal "Best Book of the Year" and Indie Next List for Reading Groups selection. He is a discussion facilitator with the Family Connections Center, New Hampshire Department of Corrections, and visiting lecturer on English at Harvard University. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts and Jaffrey, New Hampshire.
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Andrew Krivak's Website
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