W H Hudson: The Purple Land [2019] paperback TRAVL it was upon publication of

it was upon publication of A Manual for Cleaning Women in 2015 that Lucia Berlin's status as a great American writer was widely celebrated

sporting heroes (and villains)

his white shirt open and flying back

Aided by his extensive prison diaries

in a book that it is gripping as history

W H Hudson: The Purple Land [2019] paperback TRAVL it was upon publication ofThe Purple Land is a romantic novel set in the war torn borderlands of Uruguay, the Banda Oriental. The story of Richard Lamb, an idealistic young Englishman, it begins with his abduction of Paquita and their escape from the vengeance of her Argentine father. Finding refuge in Montevideo, he is catapulted into a series of picaresque adventures: horse stealing, duelling, escaping prison, and fighting on the losing side of a civil war, all the while