What can you hold on to when everything around you is changing? Two unlikely friends wander the west in old Ford station wagon. One is fighting time and the other addiction. In quiet confessions, they travel a mysterious past, through a present warmed by wisdom and laughter. The people they meet are unpredictable: aristocrats, mobsters, strong women and weak men. Theirs is a troubled odyssey, torn by jailbreaks, flash floods, heartbreak and war. "Brutally honest and beautifully written, Bayne delivers an unforgettable saga of redemption and grace." - Mitchell Sam Rossi, author of SEA OF BETRAYAL Based on a mostly true story, A Desert in Bloom is a timeless adventure across a century of change - a braided history woven with con artists, movie stars, car chases and big cats. Set against the relentless destruction of the natural world, it is one family's destiny unfolding in the road trip you'll never forget. From the Oklahoma Dust Bowl to the California Sierra, on freight trains and broken caravans, a small boy comes of age. Through barren deserts and shattered mineshafts, a young man prevails. He struggles to survive - on blazing ammunition ships, in white-out blizzards and glittering casinos. A life once bound by circumstance, set free by passion and purpose. Like The Grapes of Wrath , A Desert in Bloom has its roots in the Great Depression, in a landscape plagued by poverty, prejudice and broken dreams. Like Lonesome Dove , it is a heartfelt journey of the willing, an unbreakable bond forged on a jagged trail. Writer/director William Landvoigt Bayne explores the intersection of truth and legend in an epic tale for our times. After a long career in commercial and documentary film, this is his first novel – and he still has that '56 Ford. 400 pages.