Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Coal Black Horse

Coal Black Horse
Coal Black Horse
Author: Robert Olmstead
When Robey Childs's mother has a premonition about her husband, a soldier fighting in the Civil War, she does the unthinkable. She instructs her only child to retrieve his father from the battlefield and bring him home. Just fourteen and ill-prepared for the journey, Robey sets off wearing the coat his mother sewed to ensure his safety: blue on ...  more »
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9781565126015
ISBN-10: 1565126017
Publication Date: 5/20/2008
Pages: 229
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 18

3.9 stars, based on 18 ratings
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

shukween avatar reviewed Coal Black Horse on + 118 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
More a short story than a full length novel, Robert Olmstead's Coal Black Horse is taughtly written relates the journey of a young man, at the height of the Civil War, to bring his father home from the fighting. He travels from the mountains of West Virginia, where he has been born and reared and lived exclusively, to Gettysburg, and arrives there the day after the battle. The characters he encounters and the sights he sees along the way propel him across the bridge to manhood in a scant 3 and a half months.

The tale is gruesome at times, needfully and purposefully, and is a unique look at the Civil War--no Scarlett O'Hara here. The author's prose is spare and powerful, without an extra word. At each turn, the events related require the reader to think, wrest with a larger human issue and decide to continue liking the main character, the boy/man on the journey.

This is a gem of a novella, not light, not fluffy, but powerful and thoughtful. A quick read that stays with you afterwards. This book is all that is asked for in current fiction, and I recommend it.
reviewed Coal Black Horse on + 195 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
this is one of the best books i have ever read..there is said it..sheer poetry..
primo civil war book...fight to read it and re read it often..sandy z
reviewed Coal Black Horse on + 22 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
very gruesome read but i couldn't stop reading.
denneane avatar reviewed Coal Black Horse on + 17 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Robert Olmstead has been compared to Cormac McCarthy and rightly so. A great book that I couldn't put down. Robey was a courageous and endearing character that you couldn't help but cheer for. If you're a fan of Cormac McCarthy you'll enjoy Coal Black Horse.
denneane avatar reviewed Coal Black Horse on + 17 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
"Robert Olmstead has been compared to Cormac McCarthy and rightly so. A great book that I couldn't put down. Robey was a courageous and endearing character that you couldn't help but cheer for. If you're a fan of Cormac McCarthy you'll enjoy Coal Black Horse."
Read All 7 Book Reviews of "Coal Black Horse"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

reviewed Coal Black Horse on + 80 more book reviews
At his mama's direction a young boy starts a journey looking for his daddy who is fighting for the South in the War of Northern Aggression. It starts slow, but soon builds into a novel I could hardly put down as I became enthralled with the characters he met on his journey riding his cold black horse.
cheryl-momofthree avatar reviewed Coal Black Horse on + 5 more book reviews
An excellent book looking at the personal side of the Civil War. You follow a young man on his search for his father fighting in the war with the help of a "coal black horse." My husband and I both read the book and give it two thumbs up...


Genres: