Award-winning YA author Alison Gervais brings the little-known events of the Colorado Coalfield Wars of the early 20th century to life in Beyond the Dust, a gripping dual-narrative historical mystery of resilience, identity, and justice, set during one of the deadliest labor disputes in American history.
Evie is finishing her senior year of high school and working part-time at the local state history museum. What was supposed to be a way to take her mind off graduation becomes something much more mysterious when the more time she spends in the library and exhibits, the more she feels strangely inspired to draw. She soon discovers that the more she draws, the more her artwork tells the story of an old mining town in southern Colorado long forgotten by history.
Mariska is a young woman who has spent most of her life in Ferndale by 1913, a closed mining town owned by the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company. Determined to forge her own path, Mariska dreams of venturing outside the barbed wire fences surrounding town. Tensions are brewing between the company and the United Mine Workers of America, upending everything Mariska thought she knew about her community in Ferndale. She inevitably finds herself drawn into the miners’ decades-long fight for representation, fair wages and safe working conditions, causing her to question where her loyalties lie and what she is willing to sacrifice for the sake of her family as a strike looms on the horizon.
The compelling story of these two young women woven together across time offers a personal perspective of the American labor movement, immigration, industrialization, corporate greed, and what it means to honor the past when the past refuses to remain silent.
Beyond the Dust offers:
- A dual-narrative mystery connecting two characters across the past and present.
- A rich historical setting, highlighting the conflicts and triumphs of a 1913 mining town that are brought to life with vivid detail and emotional depth.
- Themes of resilience and justice. The struggles striking miners faced generations ago mirror the issues of today, especially workers’ rights, immigration, social justice, identity, and the strength of community in the face of adversity.
- A touch of the paranormal. Follow Evie’s unusual connection to the past as her artwork begins to tell stories that have been left untold for over a century.
- A character-driven story with historical intrigue and a dash of self-discovery. Beyond the Dust will appeal to readers of Jordyn Taylor’s The Paper Girl of Paris and Jennifer Donnely’s Revolution, as well as fans of YA historical fiction who love and authors like Ruta Sepetys, Monica Hesse, and Stacy Lee.
Blink YA publishes emotionally honest, compulsively readable stories for young adults—no explicit content and easy to recommend to anyone 13 and up.
