The Blood of My Mother (A Novel)

A woman fights for her life as a refugee, slave, mother, and farmer, in this “saga with many layers . . . [A] riveting, addictive journey” (Joanne Hardy, author of The Girl in the Butternut Dress).

After the deaths of her white father and mixed-race mother, young Eliza is left with neither home nor family in the newly forming frontier of Texas.

Enslaved by men who treat her body as their property, she eventually escapes, marries, becomes a mother, and realizes her dream of having a small farm. But she must fight and kill to keep it—even if it does mean welcoming others who have been shunned or forgotten by society. Living and laboring together, will these outcasts find the strength and community they need to survive and flourish?

Acclaimed for her “wonderful” debut novel (Publishers Weekly), Roccie Hill, inspired by the story of her great-great grandmother, now presents an unforgettable literary saga of a woman and a place, growing and enduring under multiple flags and through the sorrows and turbulence of history.

“Lonesome Dove meets Where the Crawdads Sing. I simply could not put this novel down. Vividly written, The Blood of My Mother is a gripping saga about a perilous time in our nation’s history and a woman who survived it against all odds. It is a novel about how love and hope transcend man’s inhumanity to man. I was pulled deeply into the story and was held there until the very last page.” —Patricia Wood, author of Lottery, shortlisted for the 2008 Orange Prize for Fiction

“As a child, I saw my first American Indian outside Albuquerque. A big, rotund lady covered in colored beads, sitting by the side of the train tracks, selling trinkets and tightly woven baskets. I pointed to a small polished stone whose color I had never seen. The woman smiled, picked it up and held it out; it looked so bright against the brown callused hand. I nodded vigorously. Holding out my money, we exchanged treasures. I clutched my first turquoise, reveled in the real America, both still heart warm from the desert  sun. So began my love of the real American West. Roccie Hill, through all the terrors and trials of her heroine, never loses sight of the true beauty to be found out here and in this wonderful book.” —Maria Riva, bestselling author of Marlene Dietrich: The Life and You Were There Before My Eyes.