HIDDEN VALLEY

by Max Porter, Virtual Voice (Narrator)

My name is David Dawson and the year is 1939. I am on my way to a race track in Ohio. I have a pickup and a two horse trailer. I have two horses that are sound enough to hit the board at the cheap tracks where I race. I manage to win a race often enough to keep me in feed money.The problem I have is keeping them fit. They spend most of their time in the trailer and on the road. There is no time to exercise them. The track I am headed for today is a three day drive. They will not be off of the trailer for three days and will run the next day. It makes it tough on us trainers. The only saving grace is all of my opponents are in the same boat. The horse we are always afraid of, is the one owned by a local. He has been training and has been sitting here waiting on us. There are a group of eight or ten of us on the road from tract to track. We all know each other and are for the most part good friends. We share our problems and offer help when needed to each other.This is the story of David Dawson thoroughbred horse trainer. He faces all of the problems that horse trainers face. He also faces problems that have nothing to do with horse training. The depression has caused hardships for the horse industry. The main hardship for the industry was caused by world war II. It in fact, shut the industry down altogether for a while. It took a tough man with drive, to survive these things and come out a winner in the end.

Audible Audio

Published March 27, 2025

About the author

Max Porter’s first novel, Grief Is the Thing with Feathers won the Sunday Times/Peter, Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year, the International Dylan Thomas Prize, the Europese Literatuurprijs and the BAMB Readers’ Award and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize. It has been sold in twenty-nine territories. Complicité and Wayward’s production of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers directed by Enda Walsh and starring Cillian Murphy opened in Dublin in March 2018. Max lives in Bath with his family.