Free Kindle East Of The Mountains ebooks Download
It is mid-October, 1997, harvest time in the Columbia Basin of central Washington state, a rich apple- and pear-growing region. Ben Givens, recently widowed, is a retired heart surgeon, once admired for his steadiness of hand, his precision, his endurance. He has terminal colon cancer. While Ben does not readily accept defeat, he is determined to avoid suffering rather than engage it. And so, accompanied by his two hunting dogs, he sets out through the mythic American West-sage deserts, yawning canyons, dusty ranches, vast orchards-on his last hunt.The main issues for Ben as a doctor had been tactical and so it would be with his death. But he hadn't considered the persuasiveness of memory-the promise he made to his wife Rachel, the love of his life, during World War II. Or life's mystery. On his journey he meets a young couple who are "forever," a drifter offering left-handed advice that might lessen the pain, a veterinarian with a touch only a heart surgeon would recognize, a rancher bent on destruction, a migrant worker who tests Ben's ability to understand. And just when he thinks there is no turning back, nothing to lose that wasn't lost, his power of interventions is called upon and his very identity tested.Full of humanity, passion, and moral honesty, East of the Mountains is a bold and beautiful novel of personal discovery.
Audio CD
Publisher: Random House Audio (April 20, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553456180
ISBN-13: 978-0553456189
Product Dimensions: 4.9 x 0.9 x 5.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces
Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (251 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #567,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1 in Books > Books on CD > Authors, A-Z > ( G ) > Guterson, David #1008 in Books > Books on CD > General #1811 in Books > Books on CD > Literature & Fiction > General
East of the Mountains is a simple story. Ben Givens, a Seattle-area doctor in his 70s, learns he has terminal cancer. Knowing the horror of the disease's course, he decides to take his life but to make it look like a hunting accident so his family doesn't have to know about the disease or that he took his life. The book takes place over the next few days as he tries to carry out his plan but is foiled, first by a car accident that ironically nearly takes his life, and then by a series of quests to rescue his hunting dog and to aid some migrant farm workers. He treats these events as diversions that interrupt but don't deter his goal, and yet there is an odd incongruity in his concern about the daily details of life when one would expect him to be letting go.Like Guterson's earlier book, Snow Falling on Cedars, this book is beautifully written and a pleasure to read. The main character, Ben Givens, is very richly described. He comes to life both through a series of flashbacks that flesh out his history as well as through the detailed description of his matter-of-fact reactions to the events occurring in the present. The other characters in the book play only small roles, and yet most of them felt real, each one adding interest to the story. Givens has a gift for portraying characters succintly through choice details. Consider this introduction of the veterinarian who helps save the dog:"The veterinarian was a solid young woman with the sturdy hands and face of a farmgirl and thick, soda-bottle glasses. She spoke in the direct, firm way of the country, with the vigorous practicality and certainty that had remade the sage desert into fields.
Mountains Beyond Mountains (Adapted for Young People): The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World Climbing and Hiking in the Wind River Mountains (Climbing Mountains Series) Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World [Adapted for Young People] Mountains Beyond Mountains Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World East of the Mountains Greater Middle East Region: Including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya and Turkey (Hammond Greater Middle East Region Map) Harley Loco: A Memoir of Hard Living, Hair, and Post-Punk, from the Middle East to the Lower East Side Scenic Catskill Mountains 25 Photographs to Color: Adult Coloring Book (Adult Coloring Books) (Volume 7) Mountains of the Pharaohs: The Untold Story of the Pyramid Builders Grass Beyond the Mountains: Discovering the Last Great Cattle Frontier on the North American Continent (Canadian Nature Classics) Colorado Rocky Mountains 2015 Calendar Colorado Rocky Mountains 2016 Calendar 11x14 From the Mountains to the Sea: Early Hawaiian Life It's all about... Violent Volcanoes: Everything you want to know about these mountains of fire in one amazing book When I Was Young in the Mountains (Reading Rainbow Books) Mountains of Tibet, The Only the Mountains Do Not Move: A Maasai Story of Culture and Conservation How Mountains Are Made (Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science 2) How Mountains Are Made (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Let's-Read-And-Find-Out Science 2)
