Willy Vlautin

A FINALIST FOR THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD

Horace Hopper is a half-Paiute, half-Irish ranch hand who wants to be somebody. He's spent most of his life on the ranch of his kindly guardians, Mr. and Mrs. Reese, herding sheep alone in the mountains. But while the Reeses treat him like a son, Horace can't shake the shame he feels from being abandoned by his parents. He decides to leave the only loving home he's known to prove his

...

"Fifteen-year-old Charley (Charlie Plummer) finds acceptance and camaraderie at a local racetrack where he lands a job caring for an aging Quarter Horse named Lean on Pete. The horse's gruff owner, Del Montgomery (Steve Buscemi), and his seasoned jockey, Bonnie (Chloë Sevigny), help Charley fill the void of his absent father. But when Charley discovers that Pete is bound for slaughter, he takes extreme measures to save him, as Charley and Pete embark...