Eck’s novel follows two women’s hopeful relationship through the journey of their lives.

As the story opens in 1920 Mississippi, a girl named Merritt is sitting at a piano when another girl, Ames Davis, barefoot in the grass, catches her eye. This scene sets up the central dynamic: “They were like different numbers in the same equation. They added up to something.” Although the novel is loosely based on the life of Minerva Hamilton Hoyt, who instituted Joshua Tree as a national park, the story is completely fictionalized. Part One follows Merritt and Ames through early childhood and early adulthood—through first love and marriage, a stillbirth, and the death of Ames’ parents. Part Two finds them after Ames’ mother’s funeral, when Merritt encourages Ames to join her out west. This section follows Merritt through her darkest days. Part Three and Four are about how the women finally break apart in their own ways, before coming back together. The novel’s opening is a bit like a newborn bird stumbling around on new legs, as the language can feel superfluous and heavy-handed: “Inside, something in Merritt unhitched, and a heavy load she didn’t know she was carrying fell to the floor.” But within a few pages, the prose is gliding smoothly forward through the air: “And just like that, easy as you would put a kettle on to boil, Ames Davis and Merritt Hamilton strode into the story their souls had written for them.” Despite the chapters’ short length, the characters are fully realized. Overall, the novel follows a nonlinear path across the United States, from Holmes County, Mississippi, to Los Angeles. Each location holds its own significance, representing the land in the novel’s title. Eck also has a talent for highlighting the quiet moments where life truly happens—the befores and the afters—which she weaves into the narrative with precision. One theme present throughout the novel is how life throws people out of their depth and forces them to sink or swim, and readers will remember how Merritt and Ames keep their heads above water.

A well-crafted novel based on the real life of a remarkable woman.