Crown of Dust
Mary Volmer
ISBN: 9781569478615
Published: November, 2010
Pricing
Paperback $14.00
More books by Mary Volmer
Suggested Reading
Description
In the small settlement of Motherlode, a group of disparate characters have set up a community, held together by the formidable Emaline, hostess of the Wayside Inn. It is there that Alex, on the run from something and disguised as a teenage boy, finds refuge. But once she strikes gold, buried secrets are revealed and danger surrounds her....
In the small settlement of Motherlode, a group of disparate characters have set up a community, held together by the formidable Emaline, hostess of the Wayside Inn. It is there that Alex, on the run from something and disguised as a teenage boy, finds refuge. But once she strikes gold, buried secrets are revealed and danger surrounds her.
Media
“There are subliminal echoes of L. Frank Baum in Volmer’s mythmaking.... But Volmer keeps whimsy in check with a terse present-tense voice that invests her pioneers piquant inner lives and a poker-faced lyricism.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“Volmer’s distinctive, beautifully written debut is set in the California gold rush country in the mid-19th century … [her] prose is taut and restrained, moving the story along at a healthy clip as her hardscrabble characters rumble and stumble through their dusty domain. Volmer’s found a fat vein of gold in some heavily mined territory.”
—Publishers Weekly Starred Review
“Mary Volmer possesses such fierce powers of description, I could almost feel the dust of Motherlode clinging to the hem of my skirt. In Crown of Dust, Volmer has created an intensely physical and utterly enjoyable novel, filled with unforgettable characters.”
—Michelle Richmond, author of The Year of Fog, No One You Know
“Any illusions about the glamour of digging for gold are totally shattered by Mary Volmer's "Crown of Dust," a grim and carefully researched book about the California gold rush.... Volmer, in her remarkable first novel, has re-created the reality of an era that few can even visualize now.”