B. M. Bower

Old Applehead Furrman, jogging home across the mesa from Albuquerque, sniffed the soft breeze that came from opal-tinted distances and felt poignantly that spring was indeed here. The grass, thick and green in the sheltered places, was fast painting all the higher ridges and foot-hill slopes, and with the green grass came the lank-bodied, big-kneed calves; which meant that roundup time was at hand. Applehead did not own more than a thousand head of...

Though not yet a state, California is now a U.S. possession. The old Dons possess vast tracts of land, but how good is their claim to this land? Enter California in transition, experience insight into the lives of the Spaniards of California and the irreparable gulf between the cultures, and prepare for some surprising twists in one of Bower's deepest novels.