FICTION

ELENA OF THE STARS by C.P. Rosenthal. (St. Martin’s: $18.95; 177 pp.) Love and pain, love and pain, love and pain. At 12, Elena, who has inherited too many secrets to approach a normal adolescence, goes to visit her grandfather and his horses in a remote part of Wyoming. His wife, part Comanche and full-blooded rodeo rider, has long since ridden off (having been diagnosed with cancer) to die in the chaparral. As he teaches Elena to ride, he is sorely reminded of his wife, revealing truths to his granddaughter that her parents have kept hidden for too long. And here is young Elena’s well-earned definition of truth: “Truth was a hard, good thing like this land, like killing an animal with your own hands, like riding a horse.” What’s astonishing about this book is how the plot weaves itself from the fears of the characters, rising like smoke from a campfire of old bones and unfinished stories. There are the fears of her father, who was imprisoned for killing two boys who threatened to kill his wife; of her mother, who distanced herself from her father’s sorrow, and of Elena herself, who carries the family’s destiny, and who finally breaks free of the burden of their stories.