Description

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 STROUD

Hard-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.

Publisher Review

Brave Hearted is not just history, it is an incredibly intense page-turning experience. To read what these women endured is to be transported into another universe of courage, loss, pain, and occasionally victory. This book is a triumph. * Amanda Foreman * A vivid, fascinating rag rug of cultural history that braids together stories usually kept apart . . . Gripping, eye-opening, enlightening -- Emma Donoghue This book delivers a blazing 360 degree view of the American story. Each page is packed with gumption and grit and genius. -- Bettany Hughes Katie Hickman has gathered a collection of intriguingly vivid first-hand accounts written by some of the women who ventured west. . . Hickman's Brave Hearted puts the rough texture of personal experience back into the big narrative of how the west was won. Along the way, she shows us what was lost. -- Lucy Lethbridge * Literary Review * Beautifully written, this gripping book explores the stories of the fierce women who helped shape the American West. -- Clover Stroud * Independent * In the past 50 years there has been an explosion of scholarly research that has served to dismantle those hoary old myths about the Wild West as a white male space in which women looked worried or sashayed into a saloon bar looking for trouble. In Brave Hearted Hickman makes deft and sensitive use of this new material. The result is a glorious patchwork . . . does these extraordinary women proud -- Kathryn Hughes * Sunday Times * In this richly evocative book, Hickman takes us to the crux of women's experiences in that fast- changing world, where opportunities for women were opening up in an often lawless atmosphere of greed, gambling, drinking and whoring. It was a rough ride, and the survivors were heroines, all of them. * Daily Mail * 'Working mainly with published sources, [Hickman] has woven together an extraordinary range of women's first-person voices - we hear from more than fifty of them - into a gripping narrative.' * TLS * A triumphant narrative that brings many overlooked women into the spotlight. * Booklist * As easy to read as any Western with the added advantage of showing a new version of the Old West, one vital for readers to explore. * Library Journal * Full of heartrending accounts of courage and tragedy, this is a vital contribution to the history of America's frontier. * Publishers Weekly * An unforgettable cast of characters brings an epic tale to life. * BBC History Magazine * Absolutely compelling; telling the stories of women who for so many years have been written out of history, and making us completely rethink our image of the Wild West. -- Christina Lamb * Sunday Times * [A] wide-ranging survey of the multifaceted roles of women in the 19th-century settlement of the American West... Hickman writes sensitively... A welcome corrective to the long-skewed male-centric history of westward expansion. * Kirkus * A riveting new history.. Hickman's writing is exquisite; her background as a novelist brings these women into dramatic relief... A meticulous scholar, Hickman draws on diaries and memoirs to immerse us in these women's lives and offer important correctives... Brave Hearted is an alternative history of a frontier that was home for some and a fantasy for others long after the Census Bureau decided it was gone * Los Angeles Times *