This engrossing new novel by acclaimed author Susan Lang continues the saga of Ruth Farley, the fiercely independent young woman who was the protagonist of Small Rocks Rising , published by the University of Nevada Press in 2002. Ruth is still on her homestead at the end of a rugged canyon in California’s Mojave Desert, still struggling to survive on her own and to recover from a brutal rape and the murder of her lover. Now she must also face the responsibility of motherhood. The ensuing story expands Ruth’s world to encompass the panorama of Depression-era Southern California—miners and ranchers hanging on until times are better; Indians trying to preserve their ancient culture and identity; Okies, vagrants, and breadlines; the wealth and glitter of the movie industry; and narrow-minded small-town gossips. Ruth’s life also expands as she adjusts to motherhood, trying to maintain her autonomy and isolation and trying to preserve the tenuous web that links her to the seductive ruthlessness of the desert and to its ancient people and their wisdom. Ruth is one of the most engaging characters in recent fiction, complex and contradictory, stubborn and vulnerable, passionately in love with her austere desert home. Lang tells her story, the saga of a fully modern woman seeking her own identity and destiny against the turbulent, colorful setting of the rapidly changing twentieth-century West. "...compassionate courage of this woman... vibrates on every page, making the novel sing out with hopefulness" -- John Nichols "...deeply felt and passionately rendered novel...a woman who could have lived in any time, in any landscape..." -- Pam Houston "I came out of the reading sorry to be finished" -- William Kittredge "Ruth Farley reminded me that where there is breath, there is hope; where there is courage, there is deep love." -- Mary Sojourner Susan Lang grew up on her mother's homestead in a remote canyon nearly as wild as her fictionalized valley. As an instructor of English at Yavapai College in Prescott, Arizona for twenty years, she founded and still directs the Southwest Writers Series, and in 1995 she founded the Hassayampa Institute for Creative Writing. Used Book in Good Condition