First published 2021
Texas, 1934. Elsa Martinelli watches the dust swallow her world as drought transforms the Great Plains into a wasteland. Crops wither in the fields. Wells run dry. Millions have lost their jobs, and now the earth itself turns against those who remain. Farmers abandon their homesteads as relentless storms bury everything they built. Elsa must decide whether to cling to the land that shaped her family or join the desperate migration west to California. Her neighbors face the same brutal choice. Stay and fight a battle that seems impossible to win, or leave everything behind for an uncertain future. The decision will test every bond she holds dear and demand sacrifices that will echo through generations. This is the story of one woman's struggle to protect her family when both staying and leaving promise only hardship.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-saga, historical-drama, migration
Setting: Texas, California, Great Plains
Period: 1934
464 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press