Setting

Unlike many books I have read Out Stealing Horses has a very enjoyable setting that doesn't overpower the rest of the storyline. Per Petterson does an excellent job on describing everywhere the characters venture to without explaining it to much where we can't even picture it in our heads. "There were trees on the land my father had bought as well as a pasture. Mostly spruce, but pine as well, and here and there a slim birch was almost squeezed in between the darker trunks, and all of them grew right down the river bank, where in some mysterious way a wooden cross had been nailed up on a pine tree that grew at the edge of the pebbles, almost overhanging the rushing water," (49). I love this line even though it is very long. Petterson doesn't over exaggerate the trees or the river because he doesn't have to. The way he describes the setting just seems to be perfect in any situation of the book. I feel that to many books over describe the setting with similes and metaphors which sometimes adds depth to the writing but also gives to much detail to where you can't even imagine it. Many people have different preferences on how setting should be described. I prefer simple, to the point descriptions because I don't want to read a full page on what a tree looks like or what type of fish are swimming in the river. Petterson does an marvelous job of this which makes me enjoy this book a lot more. The setting in this book from the cabins to the fields and the woods all lay a foundation to the storyline of the book which many writers seem to have trouble doing.