The Ten Thousand Things: My Mother, The Desert, And Life On The Colorado Plateau

How do you make peace with a cold, distant mother who is slowly dying? The author was faced with this very question. Diving in to help her, she soon recalled harsh, lonely childhood memories in remote red rock country, during the West's dam-building era. There, she escaped her silent home by wandering outside-befriending lizards, plants and the native sandstone landscape.

Alongside her sisters, the author navigates the maze of her mother's needs and sees her through her final days, but then...