Victoria Nash is a seventeen-year-old girl managing her family’s peach orchard in Iola, Colorado, during the 1940s. After a chance encounter with Wil Moon, a displaced Indigenous man, she enters a forbidden relationship that leads to a secret pregnancy and her eventual flight into the wilderness. As the town prepares to be submerged by the construction of a dam on the Gunnison River, Victoria lives in a makeshift mountain shelter, eventually surrendering her child to survive. She spends decades rebuilding her life in a new town, grafting peach trees while carrying the weight of her lost family and hidden history.
This novel serves readers of historical fiction who value narratives centered on the intersection of human endurance and environmental change. It attracts those interested in the specific history of the American West and the displacement caused by mid-century infrastructure projects. Readers gain a detailed perspective on the physical labor of high-altitude farming and the emotional cost of social isolation. The story provides an observation of how individuals adapt to permanent loss and find ways to sustain themselves across a changing landscape.
Balanced in tone; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Story Seeker. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2023
- Language
- EN
