This was an excellent book: a true story about the the dust storms of the plains during the Depression. Timothy Egan carries a person around the Dust Bowl, showing the reader the courage of those who stayed to endure the terrific tragedy affecting their fields and homes. I learned much from the book, much more than I gleaned from The Grapes of Wrath and other stories.

The subject matter is very timely for our country today. It feels like you're reading about our current economic meltdown, not about a period 80 years ago. Scary, haunting and incredibly well told. So worth the time you'll spend reading it. Thank you, Mr. Egan.

Timothy Egan provided tremendous insight into a question that has plagued me since I was able to think independently. What were those people even doing there? With my vanishing family roots in the Amarillo area, the last vestiges of which are my 96 year old aunt in assisted living there, I experienced the haunting, teasing character of that land and the incredible rollers that smashed into those dusty lands in the early 50's.
When everything seems to fly in the face of reason and logic, It helps to have someone present the why's and wherefore's that led to those seemingly insane conditions. It helps even more when those why's and wherefore's are presented so well. A great work!

Timothy Egan has a unique gift: Relating facts in a way that touch touch your heart!

We were there! I was born in 1931, my sister in 1929. We lived in Manter, Kansas in Stanton County and moved to eastern Kansas in 1938. I have pictures of the "rollers" and remember the wet sheets at the windows and the sand we scooped off of the porch after a dust storm. Both grandparents (Streeter/Wartman), aunts and uncles, cousins all survived by helping each other. An experience I don't care to live through again.

This is a wonderfully readable account of human experiences and suffering during the Dust Bowl. It is a great companion read to The Grapes of Wrath. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about one of the truly great environmental disasters of our history.