First published 1975
Thompson picks up where A Garden of Sand left off, following his characters into the turbulent decade of the 1940s. The protagonist faces the challenges of a nation at war and a generation coming of age amid unprecedented change. From small-town America to the broader stage of a country transformed by conflict, the story tracks one man's journey through a landscape both familiar and forever altered. Thompson writes with the same raw honesty that marked his earlier work, capturing the gritty realities of ordinary people navigating extraordinary times. As his characters confront love, loss, and the weight of their choices, the novel reveals the resilience that defines both individual lives and the American spirit during one of its most testing periods.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, war
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: America
Period: 1940s
623 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Signet