Part of Elm Creek Quilts, book 19
First published 2012
Rosa Diaz Barclay tends her Southern California rye farm while her husband John finds illegal income during Prohibition. She has buried four of her eight children to a wasting disease that now threatens young Ana and Miguel. Her two daughters from another man remain healthy. John's violence finally breaks Rosa's will to endure their dangerous life. She gathers her surviving children and her treasured heirloom quilts. Together they escape to the mesa where Rosa last encountered her mother. The journey forces Rosa to confront her past while protecting her family's future. Chiaverini weaves together themes of maternal love, survival, and the weight of family legacy as Rosa struggles to build safety from the fragments of her shattered world.
Genres: romance, literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, maternal-love, survival
Setting: California, Mesa, Southern California
Period: Prohibition
416 pages · Hardcover · Dutton
Content warnings: abuse, child-death, domestic-violence, violence