The Brave

by Nicholas Evans Narrated by Michael Emerson

Overview

There's little love in eight-year-old Tom Bedford's life. His parents are old and remote and the boarding school they've sent him to bristles with bullies and sadistic staff. The only comfort he gets is from his fantasy world of Cowboys and Indians. But when his sister Diane, a rising star of stage and screen, falls in love with one of his idols, the suave TV cowboy Ray Montane, Tom's life is transformed. They move to Hollywood and all his dreams seem to have come true. Soon, however, the sinister side of Tinseltown casts its shadow and a shocking act of violence changes their lives forever.

What happened all those years ago remains a secret that corrodes Tom's life and wrecks his marriage. Only when his estranged son, a US Marine, is charged with murder do the events resurface, forcing him to confront his demons. As he struggles to save his son's life, he will learn the true meaning of bravery.

Powerfully written and intensely moving, The Brave traces the legacy of violence behind the myth of the American West and explores our quest for love and identity, the fallibility of heroes and the devastating effects of family secrets.

Editorial Reviews

Tommy Bedford was just eight years old when he learned that his "older sister" was actually his mother. That shock was soon supplanted by glee when his youthful, glamorous mom became the amour of the TV cowboy most idolized. One sudden thrust of tragedy ended that idyllic moment, sending mother and son into frantic escape. Fast forward forty years later: Tommy has become Tom, a writer and documentary filmmaker, divorced and estranged from his only son. When that soldier son is arrested and charged in a military court for committing an atrocity in Iraq, Bedford must finally confront not only his own son, but his own hidden past.

From the Publisher

"Alternating past and present, Evans expertly juggles his twin narratives until they come shatteringly together as father and son yield to the combined weight of the secrets they hide. Combining elements of the prep school drama, the Hollywood novel, the western, and the war story, Evans (The Horse Whisperer) skillfully mixes genres to create a real crowd-pleaser."—Publishers Weekly

"Ever the master of intense and complex relationships, Evans has crafted a time-traveling plot that admirably juggles issues of identity and fidelity to one's self and one's principles."—Carol Haggas, Booklist

"In his first novel in five years Evans displays a sure hand at drawing characters and their motivations and settings as diverse as a gloomy boarding school, glamorous Hollywood, and the wide-open spaces of the West. This should appeal to all lovers of good storytelling."—Dan Forrest, Library Journal

"The Brave is an engrossing tale that ... suggest[s] that, as Faulkner said, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past." Fans of The Horse Whisperer won't want to miss this complex and satisfying story. For readers who have not had the pleasure of reading Evans, but are looking to get lost in a big novel with larger-than-life characters, The Brave is sure to fit the bill."—Kelly Blewett, BookPage

Booklist

"Ever the master of intense and complex relationships, Evans has crafted a time-traveling plot that admirably juggles issues of identity and fidelity to one's self and one's principles."

BookPage

"The Brave is an engrossing tale that ... suggest[s] that, as Faulkner said, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past." Fans of The Horse Whisperer won't want to miss this complex and satisfying story. For readers who have not had the pleasure of reading Evans, but are looking to get lost in a big novel with larger-than-life characters, The Brave is sure to fit the bill."

Kelly Blewett

The Brave is an engrossing tale that ... suggest[s] that, as Faulkner said, "The past isn't dead. It isn't even past." Fans of The Horse Whisperer won't want to miss this complex and satisfying story. For readers who have not had the pleasure of reading Evans, but are looking to get lost in a big novel with larger-than-life characters, The Brave is sure to fit the bill.
— BookPage

Dan Forrest

In his first novel in five years Evans displays a sure hand at drawing characters and their motivations and settings as diverse as a gloomy boarding school, glamorous Hollywood, and the wide-open spaces of the West. This should appeal to all lovers of good storytelling.
— Library Journal

Carol Haggas

Ever the master of intense and complex relationships, Evans has crafted a time-traveling plot that admirably juggles issues of identity and fidelity to one's self and one's principles.
— Booklist

DECEMBER 2010 - AudioFile

As the story begins, a boy visits his mother, a convicted murderer, in prison. From there, listeners meet him as a younger child who loves Westerns and hates boarding school. Then the story flashes forward to his present-day life in Montana. Who better to tell a twisted story that skips from era to era than Michael Emerson of "Lost"? As a narrator, Emerson is soft-spoken, providing just enough emphasis on those tantalizing clues to keep listeners' attention. He's also good with a wide range of voices, from those of Britain to those of the American West. As with "Lost," the puzzle isn't ultimately that important, but the details of protagonist Tom Bedford's troubled past and present ultimately prove fascinating. J.A.S. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

The latest from Evans (The Divided, 2005, etc.), author of the blockbuster The Horse Whisperer (1995), ranges from a 1950s British boarding school to early-'60s Hollywood gossip to contemporary war crimes in Iraq.

As 1960 approaches at Ashlawn Preparatory, lonely Tommy Bedford, not yet ten,is a mostlyinconspicuous boy teased for being a bedwetter. He feels exiled from home and especially from his beautiful, vivacious sister, a starlet who's just movedto Los Angeles to seek fame in film; hischief solace is an obsession with bold cowboy heroes,among thema small-screen gunslinger named Red McGraw. Tommy's sister shows up on the redbrick campus in a stretch limo one day, squiredby Ray Montane, theactor who plays Red. Soon after,Diane divulges a shocking secret—Tommy is not her brother but her son, conceived when she was a teen, and hisaged parents are really grandparents—and she and Ray whiskTommy to Hollywood to live with them. Inevitably, the sunny fantasy curdles, and Ray turns out not to be quite thesquare-jawed scourge ofinjustice he plays on television. Eventually, his poisonous jealousy results in an actof violence that, we learn in the book's opening scene, ends(not quite plausibly) withDiane being executed.Four decades later,ex-alcoholic Tom Bedford lives alone in Montana, soldiering on amid the wreckage of a marriage and a once-promising writing career.But when his estranged son, Danny,who enlisted in theMarines over Tom's objections, is charged with murder after a civilian massacre in Iraq, Tom—trying both to reconnect to his boy and to save him from conviction—is forced toacknowledge, and todo something aboutthe toxic residue of, the secrethe'd thought buried.Evans has put together a slick,well-constructed entertainment, but it often succumbs to cliché and grimly dogpaddlesin the mainstream, never taking a risk.

The novel is brisk-paced and crowd-pleasing, but hardly brave.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170061150
Publisher:	Hachette Audio
Publication date:	10/12/2010
Edition description:	Unabridged

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