First published 2012
Nannie travels west with her sister's family after being left at the altar. She joins three other British women on the Martin Handcart Company's journey from Iowa City to Salt Lake City in 1856. Louisa follows her domineering church leader husband who claims divine authority. Jessie dreams of the farm she and her brothers will build in Zion. Anne has not converted to Mormonism but must accompany her husband after he sold their possessions for the move. The four women pull handcarts across 1,300 miles of wilderness as the last company of the season. Early winter storms trap them on the plains. Food runs out. People freeze and starve. The women face impossible choices as their faith collides with brutal reality. They depend on each other to survive conditions that kill many in their group. Their friendship becomes the anchor that holds them together when everything else fails.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, 19th-century
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, thought-provoking
Tropes: faith-vs-reality, found-family
Setting: Iowa City, Salt Lake City, Zion
Period: 1856
352 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press
Content warnings: death