Nothing But Dust - Softcover

By the time Rafael is born, the family estancia has already gone to hell. The youngest of four, his father disappeared before he was born. His older brothers, the twins Mauro and Joaquin, blame Rafael and exact revenge at every opportunity. Steban, his other sibling, appears to be a simpleton whose allegiances change with the shifting winds. Ruling despotically over this dysfunctional roost is a tyrannical and avaricious mother. Her only act of what may just be affection for her youngest is to give him a horse, a singularly beautiful animal that will become Rafael's closest companion. On the lonely Patagonian steppe, life is lived to the rhythms of the family farm, unforgiving, ruthless, and bloody. When a chance encounter brings about the possibility of change, family tensions mount and daily life degenerates into open warfare. Reminiscent of the dustbowl novels of Steinbeck, Nothing but Dust is a gritty, unsentimental yet majestic story about life in one the most inhospitable places on Earth.