From the author of Eliza’s Freedom Road and Calico Girl (a Kirkus Best Book of the Year) comes a dramatic historical middle grade novel that is “a unique lens through which to examine the 1849 Gold Rush” (School Library Journal) following an enslaved girl taking the chance to find freedom on the Overland Trail to California. In Alexandria, Virginia, in the mid-19th century, a slave-owning family is facing financial trouble. The eldest son, Jason, thinks going to California to mine for gold might be the best way to protect his father’s legacy. He’ll need a cook, a laundress, and a hostler for the journey, and one of them is twelve-year-old Clementine, whose mother calls her Hope. From Independence, Missouri—the “Gateway to the West”—she and the others join a wagon train on the Emigrant Overland Trail. But what Jason didn’t consider is taking the three enslaved people west will give them an opportunity to free themselves—manifesting their destiny.

ジャーディン・ノーレンは、歴史の激流に翻弄される魂に鮮烈な「声」を与える名手です。本作の真髄は、1849年のゴールドラッシュという国家規模の野望を背景に、少女クレメンタインが自らの名を「希望（ホープ）」へと塗り替えていく魂の脱皮にあります。過酷な旅路を通じて奴隷制の鎖を精神から解き放っていく文学的カタルシスは、まさに圧巻の一言に尽きます。 著者は「明白な天命」という概念を換骨奪胎し、虐げられた者が自らの手で運命を掴み取る物語へと昇華させました。自由とは、荒野を歩む一歩一歩にこそ宿るもの。この力強いテーマは、時代を問わず読者の胸を熱く焦がすはずです。歴史の影で気高く輝きを放つ、真の自由への行進をぜひその目で確かめてください。