THE FAR SIDE OF THE HILL

A novel of the Western Slope high up in the mountains in Colorado has the rough, indigenous virtues of lonely country and the self-containment it breeds in the few families that live there and will never go Outside. Among them are the Jessers; Ike, a miner, Dele, and Dee Ann, just sixteen, untouched and unpredictable. Her meetings with a dark skinned stranger are kept concealed from Dele who has her own memory of a mistaken marriage to halfbreed in her youth. But with the first words between Dee Ann and her mother, Dee Ann runs away with Jacob, an American, who did not want her as a wife and takes her to the city where he woos her with clothes and jewelry and finally a marriage licence, but can never win her passion. And finally acknowledging that his love can never obscure the image of her mountains- which have never left her eyes - he frees her..... An indigenous picture of simple people- and an inalienable way of life, primitive and proud, this is for a rather special market- largely regional.