THE SOUND OF THE TREES

Taking its title from a Robert Frost poem, this engrossing, lyrical novel marks the debut of a writer of great promise. Set during the Depression, the narrative follows 18-year-old Trude Mason as he takes his mother and flees on horseback from his abusive alcoholic father, leaving behind their foreclosed New Mexican ranch for the high country of Colorado. After mourning his mother's death from a rattlesnake bite and braving incredible hardships—not the least of which is the approaching winter—Trude is bushwhacked and stabbed by an Englishman traveling with a beautiful black girl who is his captive. Eventually, Trude makes his way to a fledgling frontier town where a sinister mayor holds sway. The ambitious mayor dreams of parlaying the coming of the railroad into the creation of a dominant center of commerce on the western frontier, elevating himself to political prominence. Trude discovers that the girl, Delilah, is also in town and has been jailed for the theft of a rake. His thwarted attempts to free her evolve into a classic David and Goliath struggle. When an Eastern magazine writer comes to town, the power-crazed mayor decides to hang Delilah, sending a message to the world that the town is ruled by law—and by him. The boy's desperate and heroic struggle against time and insurmountable odds invests the denouement with gut-wrenching tension. At times repetitive and marred by off-key imagery—Delilah's hair "fell past her shoulders like nests of stone"; the mayor's boots "sprang from the floor like hand-rubbed coals"—this is nevertheless an uncommonly good first novel, strongly evocative of Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. (May 1)