"Stretched over 20 years and 2,000 miles, award-winning author Holt's latest novel is a sweeping story of westward expansion, beginning in 1833 Missouri when a young mother dies in childbirth. Her baby, Amos, survives and is raised by in-laws until his trapper father, Jake, returns. So begin years of hardscrabble pioneer life as Amos shuttles between friends, neighbors, and relatives, finally joining Jake and his Otoe Indian wife on a wagon train headed for Oregon. Scenes of magical realism add rich texture.... Holt creates a moving, palpable sense of pioneer life in graceful prose that occasionally reads like poetry. And her memorable characters' stories raise powerful questions about how lives are shaped."—Booklist