First published 2021
China Iron has been abandoned by her gaucho husband Martín Fierro, left behind like so many frontier wives. When Liz, a Scottish woman, arrives with her covered wagon, China seizes the chance to escape. Together they roll across the Argentine pampas in an ox-drawn cart, and China discovers she wants more than friendship from her traveling companion. Liz teaches China about the wider world and the British Empire's reach into Argentina. Their journey takes them through encounters with Colonel Hernández, the writer who claims to have captured Martín Fierro's story, and wild nights with drunken gauchos. But China learns the landscape itself, studying the plants and animals of her homeland with fresh eyes. When violence threatens, the two women find safety among the Iñchiñ people, a river community that offers them something neither the gaucho culture nor colonial society could provide. China must choose between the mythology that shaped her and a future she can build for herself.
Genres: romance, historical-fiction, adventure
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family, road-trip
Setting: Argentina, Pampas
Period: 19th-century
195 pages · Paperback · Charco Press
Content warnings: colonialism