This is a dramatic story of survival and a mother’s fierce determination to provide for her children in the face of incredible hardship and loss. The setting is Texas during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl era. Elsa and her children Loreda and Anthony are forced to leave for California when their land is rendered unable to sustain them by many years of severe drought. Against all odds they make the trip West only to discover that reports of a better life are false and that hopes of finding work are dashed. At the hands of cruel land owners, migrant workers suffer inhumane treatment. Picking cotton for little or no wages leaves the family fighting for their very lives with no option but to protest for better wages at their own peril.
This brutal account of a difficult time in American’s history is both captivating and heartbreaking. And not lost on the reader is how challenging issues of climate and poverty and social injustice are not all together behind us. The pandemic has once again starkly revealed the failure of the ‘American Dream.’ Hannah says in her author’s notes: “Three years ago, I began writing this novel about hard times in America: the collapse of the economy; the effect of massive unemployment. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that the Great Depression would become so relevant in our modern lives, that I would see so many people out of work, in need, and frightened for the future.” Perhaps, sadly, not much has changed.
This historical fiction has well developed characters and is highly readable but keep a box of tissues handy–it’s hard stuff. However, it’s also a compelling account of survival, resilience and love by the author of past favourites The Nightingale and The Great Alone.
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