Funerals for horses

"Brutally lyrical." -Publishers Weekly

"A rich blend of metaphors and genuine characters that will touch the hearts of readers." -Library Journal


Ella Ginsberg’s brother Simon seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. His clothing, shoes and watch were found abandoned near a freight line track in Central California. His jockey shorts and wallet were never found. The police have no clue, and Simon’s wife Sarah had no warning that any trouble was brewing.

Ella, the member of the family with the most severe mental health issues, takes off on foot across much of California and Arizona, thinking she can find Simon using nothing but her knowledge of the way he might think. Her search leads her to the Navajo Nation in Arizona, where she is helped and befriended by three Native Americans and an aged paint horse named Yozzie.

Chapters of her travels in the present are interspersed with chapters of her past with Simon, who raised her, and who is still the most important person in her shaky world. Only maybe it’s not as unstable as it looks from the outside. Maybe inside Ella a core of unexpected strength is emerging. Maybe Ella is even stronger than the brother who held their lives together for so long.


"A tale of sibling loyalty, madness, pain and redemption. In this restrained but compelling narrative, Hyde movingly conveys the toll of years of emotional damage." -Publishers Weekly