Longlisted for the 1999 Women's Prize for Fiction
Fifteen-year-old Sophie Behr is carrying the child of a Mexican ranch hand on the thousand-acre sheep ranch where she lives with her tough, bitter, and unstable mother, Willy. When Willy reacts to the pregnancy with an act of astonishing cruelty, Sophie flees and embarks on a search for her long-absent father. Her encounter with him, however, proves to be another painful step in her journey from childhood to adulthood; his disturbing revelations about the family’s past quickly drive her away. Finally, finding refuge with her grandmother, she gives birth to her baby and returns to her beloved ranch with a newfound strength and determination.
