The Rainbow Acres

Book excerpt: In the spring of 1916, seventeen-year-old Kishan Singh is euphoric in his village Noor Mahal in Punjab, British India as he dreams of going to college, landing a government job and marrying his heartthrob Roop. Summer flies in with promise but ends in disaster when heavy rains flood the fields, wrecking the cotton crop and triggering influenza which leaves behind a trail of dead villagers. Kishan Singh’s dreams are ruthlessly washed away. Devastated, he sets off on a life-threatening voyage across two oceans for a distant and unknown land. On a cataclysmic day in 1919, Sophia’s idyllic world in Guadalajara, Mexico, falls apart when she becomes a hapless victim to the ravages of the Mexican Revolution. She battles hunger, poverty and near prostitution before embarking on a perilous night journey across the border. Will their paths cross in the land of opportunities that is overrun with racial and class barriers? The Rainbow Acres is a moving saga of migration, selfless love, fortitude, friendship, and the quest for land and identity, set against the backdrop of old Punjab, early California and revolution-torn Mexico.