Jeannette Walls

The author recalls her life growing up in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father and distant mother, and describes how she and her siblings had to fend for themselves until they finally found the resources and will to leave home.

It is 1970 in a small town in California: 'Bean' Holladay is twelve and her sister Liz is fifteen when their artistic mother, Charlotte, takes off to find herself, leaving the girls enough money to last a month or two. When Bean returns from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz decide to take the bus to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying mansion that has been in Charlotte's family for generations....

"Caballos salvajes nos descubre los origenes de la disfuncional familia Walls. Si en El castillo de cristal los ninos nos conmovieron con su fortaleza y sus ganas de vivir, en esta precuela será Lily Casey Smith, su abuela, la que nos brinde su tenacidad y perseverancia ante las dificultades que atravesó en el camino de su vida. Heroina y pionera en el Lejano Oeste americano, Lily vivió durante sus casi primeros diez años en una caseta del desierto...

From Jamestown to Plymouth, early settlers fight for survival. Tobacco sows the seeds of opportunity; the north becomes a powerhouse of trade. Tension, taxation and resistance explode into war as the rebels take on the might of the British Empire.

The Cold War is the first test for the new superpower. The Challenger disaster and 9/11 are tragedies that challenge the nation. From the television to the credit card and the personal computer, technology drives America into the 21st Century.

Commerce and industry thrive across the new nation, now one of the wealthiest on Earth. The Erie Canal brings big risk and bigger reward. In the South, cotton is king but slavery fuels a growing divide.

The Civil War rages. The formidable Confederate army cannot match the Union's mastery of technology; railroads, supply lines and the telegram become new weapons in a modern war.

America becomes a global superpower; the economy and population boom. In the jet age and the space age, pioneers conquer new frontiers and run headlong into Cold War.

The attack on Pearl Harbor brings America into World War. The war effort revitalizes the nation's economy. American innovation and manufacturing might invigorate the Allies in Europe and in the Pacific.