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    High Plains Tango: A Novel
    Unavailable
    High Plains Tango: A Novel
    Unavailable
    High Plains Tango: A Novel
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    High Plains Tango: A Novel

    Written by Robert James Waller

    Narrated by Sam Freed

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    With over 10 million copies sold, bestselling author Robert James Waller returns with the haunting, evocative story of a small town, a beautiful and mysterious woman, and the man forever changed by both.

    The wild places are where no one is looking anymore. Out there on the high plains, among the Sioux reservations and the silent buttes, among the small towns dying and the people with them, you can hear the wind. And on the back of the wind is the sound of an old accordion-tangos-mingling with the lonely thump of a single drum in the nighttime and a far-off warrior's cry. On the back of the wind is the smell of worn saddle leather and sawdust, of sandalwood, and smoke from ancient ceremonial fires. To this, to a town called Salamander, comes Carlisle McMillan, a traveler and master carpenter seeking a place of quiet amid the grinding roar of progress. Near Wolf Butte, a strange and apparently haunted monolith, he finds his quiet, or so he believes, and begins rebuilding a decrepit house as a tribute to the gruff old man who taught him a carpenter's skills, rebuilding his life at the same time.

    He finds two very different, independent women: Gally Deveraux, who works at a diner in Salamander and longs for something more than she is, and Susanna Benteen, beautiful and enigmatic, who was drawn to Salamander for mysterious reasons of her own, a woman the town has labeled a witch. The women and his carpenter's trade and an old Indian known as Flute Player bring Carlisle a sense of contentment for a while. But his quiet is shattered as bulldozer treads begin to turn and the Yerkes County War commences. Run or stand your ground, that is Carlisle's dilemma, Gally on one side, Susanna on the other.

    Robert James Waller's fully imagined characters become people we know and care for deeply.

    High Plains Tango is the hauntingly lyrical story of a small town in the middle of nowhere, a town that forever changed-and was forever changed by-one man.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 28, 2005
    ISBN9780739320068
    Unavailable
    High Plains Tango: A Novel
    Author

    Robert James Waller

    Robert James Waller is a writer, photographer, and musician. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestsellers, The Bridges of Madison County and A Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend. Born in England, and educated at Oxford, Waller now lives in Texas.

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    Reviews for High Plains Tango

    3.5/5

    24 ratings2 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This is the third in the Bridges of Madison County series. I haven't read the first two so cannot comment on how this one compares. Waller's writing has a dreamy, flowery quality, and like the overly romantic story, it is not to everyone's taste. Carlisle McMillan, the son of of Robert Kincaid (Bridges of Madison County) is a drifter who settles down in a small town and perfectly restores an abandoned house. Carlisle's idealistic life contrasts sharply with the land speculators and developers who plan to ruin his peaceful life.It's difficult to form an opinion of the story. The characters are either real rotters or they are unbelievably good, or beautiful, or talented, or intelligent. However, this novel has allowed Waller to bang his drum against development and destruction of nature. In the struggle for domination, one bystander said of the standoff "It was a first-class tango."
    • 4/5
      I picked this up and read it because I enjoyed "Bridges" so much. I think this is a better story than Bridges. Certainly falls into the "ChicLit" category, but I'm good with that - good characters and a good job of exploring human emotion.