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Sweet Promised Land

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Sweet Promised Land

By: Robert Laxalt
Narrated by: Roberto Prado
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About this listen

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Dominique Laxalt was 16 when he left the French Pyrenees for America. He became a sheepherder in the Nevada desert and nearby hills of the Sierra. Like all his fellow Basque immigrants, Dominique dreamed of someday returning to the land of his beginnings. Most Basques never made the journey back, but Dominique finally did return for a visit with family and friends. Sweet Promised Land is the story of that trip, told by his son Robert, who accompanied him to the pastoral mountain village of Tardets in France. Dominique came home victorious, the adventurer who had conquered the unknown and found his fortune in the New World. He told of his life in America, the hardships and challenges, and began to realize that he had changed since his departure from Tardets. By the end of the visit, he knew with certainty where he belonged.

During the past 50 years, this book has become a classic in Western American literature, still beloved by the Basque American community. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the book’s publication, Western literature scholar Ann Ronald wrote a new foreword, discussing the book in the context of American and Nevada literature.

©1957 Robert Laxalt (P)2021 Audible, Inc.
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Really enjoyed this simple story of a Basque returning to his native land with his son after a prolonged absence. It's a glimps into live in the 1950s, and recounts stories of the American west in the decades before then when it was - by the sounds of it - still the Wild West. A lovely time capsule that reads in many ways like it was written just recently rather than 50 years ago.

Fascinating insight into emigration

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