Unspoken: Secrets and Survival in the Texas Dust Bowl

"Reminds me, in tone, of Texas classics like The Time it Never Rained and Giant. I loved it. Alexander is a great new talent in the genre of Texana." -W.F. Strong, author, Stories From Texas, and radio commentator for NPR Texas

A Farm Devastated. A Dream Destroyed. A Family Scattered. And One Texas Girl Determined to Salvage the Wreckage.

Ruby Lee Becker cant breathe. Its 1935 in the heart of the Dust Bowl, and the Becker family has clung to its Texas Panhandle farm through six years of drought, dying crops, and dust storms. On Black Sunday, the biggest blackest storm of them all threatens ten-year-old Ruby with deadly dust pneumonia and requires a drastic choice -one her mother, Willa Mae, will forever regret.

To survive, Ruby is forced to leave the only place shes ever known. Far from home in Waco, and worried her mother has abandoned her, shes determined to get back.

Even after twelve years, Willa Mae still clings to memories of her daughter. Unable to reunite with Ruby, shes broken by their separation.

Through rollicking adventures and harrowing setbacks, the tenacious Ruby Lee embarks on her perilous quest for home -and faces her one unspoken fear.

Heart-wrenching and inspiring, the tale of Ruby Lees dogged perseverance and Willa Maes endless love for her daughter shines a light on women driven apart by disaster who bravely lean on one another, find comfort in remade families, and redefine what home means.