The Road From Nowhere

From master storyteller and Newbery medalist Avi, The Road from Nowhere is a tightly plotted adventure in the old west, a tale of boyhood and two rivaling brothers stranded in a small mining town, and a deep dive into the history of one of America’s most desperate periods of economic crisis. Only three kids live in the tiny, remote high Colorado desert silver mining camp of Gatchett’s Gluch, population 45. Brothers Ollie and Gus, thirteen and eleven, and Alys, the only girl in town, are the only kids. Bored and restless, they want to find silver on their own and liberate themselves from isolation. When they stumble upon a cave that contains traces of silver, the boys (along with Alys) are determined to set up their own mine. But Elijah Gatchett, the man who owns and runs the town, won’t allow other prospecting in his area and has harsh ways to enforce it. Moreover, this is 1893, a time of economic crisis, with the price of silver going steadily down. Meanwhile, the boys' mother has found a man she wants to marry, a visiting geologist. At the heart of this story is the beating heart of Ollie and Gus's ever competitive relationship--often at odds but mutually dependent. How the kids navigate all this—with a surprising ending—is an old-west adventure that has not been told.