"In his 13th novel, Tim Winton depicts the panoramic tragedy of Scully, a ruddy, working-class fellow in Ireland whose wife, Jennifer, disappears suddenly and mysteriously after he has a ghostly vision of 20 horsemen one winter night. Scully's seven-year-old daughter, Billie, may have witnessed Jennifer's disappearance, but has been rendered mute by the ordeal. Clues lead Scully and his daughter on a quest that covers Greece, Italy, Paris, and Amsterdam, as Scully slowly accepts his failure along with the idea that some things will never be known.

Fred Scully eagerly waits in an Irish airport for the arrival of his wife and seven-year-old daughter. He envisions a new life ahead of them, a fresh start in an old farmhouse that he's been renovating during the weeks they have spent apart. But something goes catastrophically wrong. His daughter emerges inexplicably alone through the airplane terminal's glass doors, and Scully's life goes down in flames.
Thus begins THE RIDERS, a dark and powerful journey into the obsessive psyche of a man in search of a woman vanished. It is a tale of the ghosts that plague relationships; of revelation sought in places and people; and of redemption found in the determined will to carry on. Epic in its sweep yet gripping in its details, THE RIDERS is storytelling at its most haunting.

Anticipating the arrival of his wife and child in Ireland, Fred Scully is devastated when his little girl appears alone at the airport. She carries no note, and offers no explanation for her mother's absence. As father and daughter frantically search Europe for the woman who has mysteriously abandoned them, Tim Winton paints a searing portrait of how one love destroys a man--and another saves him. "Satisfies on every level".--The Washington Post Book World."

Library sale.

This one will go to kizmiaz as a trade when I finish reading it.

A great book! Rough and descriptive language takes Scully and his daughter on the quest through Europe.

Off to Portugal as a trade.

Just got it, thanks notnot.
Your's is making its way to you now. Thanks for trading.

Well, it took me some time to start reading it but I've finally did it.
I discovered Tim Winton in BC a few years ago and have been a fan ever since. His books are not an easy read usually but this one was a bit harder than the previous ones I've read.
The story is very depressing and the pace of the novel doesn't help much. I found it long and not as great as I thought it would be.
Scully is a strange character (just like Quasimodo his soul twin) who is too stubborn and a bit half witted to understand what he's putting his daughter through during his whole odyssey in search of his missing wife.
Billie is a giant character in a little girls body, she really carries a lot of the novel.
I liked the parallels between the novel and the classic Hunchback of Notre Dame that pop up in so many details but I felt the whole pursuit for Jennifer too long and unreal and that put me off, a bit.
Anyway it was an interesting read and a well written story by a very good author, just not my favorite of his novels.

Gone to a new reader as parts of the 1st sentence VBB

This book is with me now.
I'm very pleased with my choices (from the 1st sentence VBB).
Thank you, k :-)