The epic story of the transformation of the American west, as seen through the eyes of the women who were there'This book is a triumph' AMANDA FOREMAN'Absolutely compelling' CHRISTINA LAMB'A blazing view of the American story' BETTANY HUGHES'Gripping, eye-opening' EMMA DONOGHUE'Richly evocative... the survivors were heroines, all of them' YSENDA MAXTONE GRAHAM'Beautifully written' CLOVER STROUDHard-drinking, hard-living poker players and prostitutes of the new boom towns; wives and mothers travelling two and a half thousand miles across the prairies in covered-wagon convoys; African American women in search of freedom from slavery; Chinese sex-workers sold openly on the docks of San Francisco; Native American women brutally displaced by the unstoppable tide of white settlers - all had to be brave-hearted women.