Flying Changes

Flying Changes

Twenty years after her competitive riding career finished tragically, anxiety rules Annemarie Zimmer's days - the fear that her relationship with the man she loves is going nowhere and the worry that her daughter Eva's own dreams of Olympic glory will end in a repetition of Annemarie's traumatic circumstances.

When the teenage Eva is invited to audition for a world-class trainer, Annemarie realises that she must give Eva a chance to soar. But when Eva falls in love with a spectacular blue roan Nokota who hasn't let anyone ride him since his arrival at the barn, Annemarie's doubts come crashing back.It is a time of turmoil at Maple Brook: when loves must be confronted head-on and fears must be saddled and broken to allow this one remarkable family to pull together and meet headlong the changes coming their way.


Sara Gruen is a Canadian-born dual citizen (Canadian and American) who moved to the States in 1999 for a technical writing job. When she was laid off two years later, instead of looking for another job, she decided to take a gamble on writing fiction full-time. Sara lives with her husband, three children, two dogs, four cats, two horses and a goat in North Carolina. Sara already has her eye on another horse and a donkey.


Flying Changes
Allen and Unwin
Author: Sara Gruen
ISBN: 9781743311714
Price: $19.99

Riding Lessons

Once a world-class equestrienne with dreams of Olympic glory, a tragic accident changed Annemarie's life forever. Twenty years later she returns home with a troubled teenager in tow and glimpses a white striped gelding that sparks an obsession that could shatter her fragile world. A beautifully moving and hopeful novel of second chances from the best selling author of Water For Elephants.

As a world-class equestrienne and Olympic contender, Annemarie Zimmer lived for the thrill of flight atop a strong, graceful animal. Then, at age 18, a tragic accident destroyed both her riding career and Harry, her beloved and distinctively marked horse.

Now, many 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 gentle veterinarian Annemarie loved as a girl, and in the seductive allure of a trainer with a magic touch.

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

'... a moving story of loss, survival and renewal.' Publisher's Weekly

Riding Lessons
Allen and Unwin