The Sport of Kings

Henry Forge, heir to an old white Kentucky family, defies his tyrannical father in 1965 and replaces the family's corn with thoroughbred horses, though he keeps the old man's racism. He brings up his only child, Henrietta, with a fierce, possessive attention, and she grows up as wilful as he is. Allmon Shaughnessy is raised in poverty in Cincinnati, looking after his ailing mother, and is behind bars by seventeen, where he learns he has a way with horses. In the 2000s Henrietta takes him on at Forge Run Farm, where all hopes rest on Hellsmouth, a filly of famous descent, and a love affair grows between them that Henry means to end. Interludes go back to Allmon's forebear, a man who escaped slavery.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Family (assigned by AI)

Set in

United States

First published

2016

Author's age

40 when first published

ISBN

9780374281083 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, United States)

9781250131843 (Picador, United States)

9780008173319 (Fourth Estate, United Kingdom)

More

Wikidata