BETWEENthelines by Erin Gilmore
The Horse Healer Gonzalo Giner Grupo Planeta | 551 pages Amazon for Kindle - $9.99
The opening pages of The Horse Healer pack an intense punch: the panicked desperation of a stolen horse, the crippling devastation of a family lost, and the protagonist’s dogged determination to survive. The story centers around young Diego de Malagón, who makes his way through war-torn, 13th century Spain, surreptitiously arriving on the doorstep of Galib, a well to do albéitar (veterinarian). The man deigns to help Diego, and becomes his mentor, recognizing that the boy possesses an intuitive connection with all horses. The Horse Healer is more epic tome than novel to pick-up and put down again. Author Gonzalo Giner is a veterinarian by trade, and writes of 13th century veterinary care with both the knowledge of an expert, and the flair of a writer. Giner recreates the medieval world as it applied to equines, and while the nitty gritty methods of that time can be graphic, the tactile details of a world from centuries ago are enticing. “Your beloved Sabba, wind of the east in my language, will carry you through lands you’ve never dreamed of. And from now on, I tell you, it will be horses that guide your path,” Galib tells Diego. As he teaches the boy, it becomes clear that the understanding of equine psychology and veterinary methods that he passes down are truly from another century. But the reader is not meant to compare and criticize, but rather absorb the ancient ways much the same as a historian would. “The importance and great value horses had in the Middle Ages meant that the greater part of the efforts and research of the veterinary profession was devoted to them,” Giner writes. The Horse Healer is an homage to veterinarians, and the thousands of men and women who have practiced veterinary medicine over the centuries. This is Giner’s fourth book, and the first to be translated from its original Spanish to English. Translated by Adrien West, the text flows seamlessly without any hitches in wording or grammar – a significant accomplishment for a novel that clocks in at over 500 pages.
HUNTINGTON BEACH SURF CLASSIC JULY 1–4 HUNTINGTON BEACH SUMMER CLASSIC AUGUST 6–9