Lean and Pete

LEAN ON PETS tells the story of fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson, a kid who yearns for stability as his single-parent father moves them from job to job across the Pacific Northwest. Desperation brings Charley to a run- down horse track where he gets work of his own as a groom to a bitter, ageing trainer. It's there that he finds kinship with the horse Lean on Pete, and ultimately sets off on a journey to try and save them both.
In prose marked by a haunting kindness, Willy Vlautin paints an extraordinary picture of life on the margins of contemporary American society.