Book excerpt: In this stark Acid Western, the dark side of oft-glorified Gold Rush period in California is revealed when the Narrator, a nameless, fragile man in search of salvation, witnesses the brutality of western expansion. On a journey to meet up with his wife, who is taking care of her ailing mother, the Narrator witnesses the crossing of paths between a Native American man on a moral quest to right the wrongs of the Gold Rush and a desperate, fearsome stranger who has lost everything in his quest for gold. Along the way, Narrator’s sensibilities shift and change, and his dark and troubled past emerges in glimpses he struggles to repress. Ultimately, he is left with a decision that will change not only his own life, but the lives of those around him.