Like the Appearance of Horses

Read this! You’ll never be the same again.

— Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore (Spokane, WA)

Compelling and deftly crafted.

— Midwest Book Review

Krivak impresses with this layered story of deferred homecomings and the elusive nature of peace.

— Publishers Weekly

Subtle and nuanced.

— Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

[An] intensely readable whopper of a book.

— Library Journal (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)

[Krivak’s] prose is spare and exquisite, breathing life into the mountains, the forests, and the foxholes these characters inhabit. A beautifully emotional and delicate novel.

— Historical Novels Review

A startling clarity characterizes [Krivak’s] language, which can only be called luminous.

— Washington Independent Review of Books

Lyrical, moving. . . . While Krivak depicts the violence of war with frightening intimacy, he’s also attuned to the persistence of beauty and grace in nature and in what love endures.

— Fordham Magazine

Forceful and absorbing.

— WOSU

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

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

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 and Devil Makes Three