Bøger af Rita Welty Bourke

"A horse scheduled to be euthanized is given a respite. An illiterate man learns to read so he can better care for his puppy. A neurologically-impaired kitten might provide a key to understanding storage diseases in humans. These are some of the successes that make the practice of veterinary medicine a joy, and sometimes a heartbreak. For Kylie Wheeler, they are why she's chosen a career in veterinary medicine, and why she struggles every day of her professional life."--Back cover.

Lucy Carnegie, wife of industrialist Thomas Carnegie, dreamed of creating on Cumberland Island a home where her children would be safe from the smoke and soot-filled skies over Pittsburgh. Protected by the waters of the Cumberland Sound, the estate she built encompassed nearly the entire island. It was a perfect world, until the outside world intruded. Stone by stone it all came tumbling down. Wild horses now crop the grass around the burnt-out mansion. Rattlesnakes nest among the ruins. A century later, another family comes to Cumberland to walk among the horses and to accept what gifts the island has to offer: solitude, unspoiled wilderness, and wildlife free to roam undisturbed. Returning year after year, Rhamy and her parents explore the island and swim in the ocean. They picnic on the beach where servants once served champagne, shrimp cocktails, and crab cakes to the Carnegie family and their guests. They gaze at the chimneys surrounding Stafford house, all that remain of slave quarters that once housed plantation field hands. They mourn for Zabette, daughter of a plantation owner and his black servant, sold to a man who fathered her six children, then abandoned her. Always, everywhere on the island, the horses graze nearby, unaware of efforts by environmentalists to remove them from the island where they have lived for centuries. Traveling to the north end of the island, the family sits for a quiet moment in the church where JFK Jr. married Carolyn Bessette. Across the pasture is the shack where naturalist Carol Ruckdeschel has lived for fifty years and the porch where her lover lay dead, shot through the heart. In the campgrounds, on the beach, at the Dungeness dock, wild horses graze. For now, they are safe. Rita Welty Bourke is the author of Kylie's Ark: The Making of a Veterinarian. She's a regular contributor to literary magazines, including The Southwest Review, Shenandoah, Black Warrior Review, and The North American Review. Married to songwriter Rory Michael Bourke, she's the mother of three daughters. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Lucy Carnegie built an estate that encompassed nearly all of Cumberland Island. It was a perfect world, until the outside world intruded and it all came tumbling down. A century later, another family comes to Cumberland to walk among the horses and to accept what the island has to offer: solitude, unspoiled wilderness, and wildlife free to roam.