Meg Rosoff has mesmerized readers with novels about the events that become,over a life's arc,the defining moments.The Bride'sFarewell,her fourth novel,is no exception:a young woman in 1850s rural England runs away from home on horseback the day she's to marry her childhood sweetheart.Pell is from a poor preacher's family and has watched her mother suffer for years under the burden of caring for an ever-increasing number of children.Pell yearns to escape the inevitable repetition of such a life.

Pell is a natural with horses;she understands them perhaps better than she understands people.So she sets off Salisbury Fair-an annual gathering for commerce,especially horse trading-in the hope of finding work.Early one morning she encounters a striking man she privately nicknames Dogman because of the close bond he has with the two gray lurchers always at his side.As Pell rides farther from home after the fair,the strength of her family and her fiance surpise her.And even though she finds Dogman again along the way,it is the pull of her family that alters the course of her journey.

Written in a voice as winning and unique as Mark haddon's,The Bride's Farewell will delight avid fans and new readers.