"Rostad's bighearted debut is full of surprises, and warm with wisdom about what it means to be family." -Meg Waite Clayton, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Train to LondonIn this brilliant debut reminiscent of Kristina McMorris's Sold on a Monday and William Kent Krueger's This Tender Land, three orphans journey westward from New York City to the Big Sky Country of Montana, hoping for a better life where beautiful wild horses roam free. Montana 1925: An Irish boy orphaned by Spanish flu, a tiny girl who won't speak, and a volatile young man who lies about his age to escape Hell's Kitchen, are paraded on train platforms across the Midwest to work-worn folks. They journey countless miles, racing the sun westward. Before they reach the last rejection and stop, the oldest, Charles, comes up with a daring plan, and alone, they set off toward the Yellowstone River and grassy mountains where the wild horses roam. Fate guides them toward the ranch of a family stricken by loss. Nara, the daughter of a successful cattleman, has grown into a brusque spinster who refuses the kids on sight. She's worked hard to gain her father's respect and hopes to run their operation, but if the kids stay, she'll be stuck in the kitchen. Nara works them without mercy, hoping they'll run off, but they buck up and show spirit, and though Nara will never be motherly, she begins to take to them. So, when Charles is jailed for freeing wild horses that were rounded up for slaughter, and an abusive mother from New York shows up to take the youngest, Nara does the unthinkable, risking everything she holds dear to change their lives forever.
