Publisher's Synopsis
Every year, in the first days of summer, Billy leaves his parents and the big city, hops on a train and heads west across the country. Once he arrives at his grandfather's ranch, under the infinite sky and the hot New Mexico sun, he puts on his boots, reunites with his horse and begins to ride through those unfathomable expanses. It is a hard land: a cow could walk a kilometer for a mouthful of grass and eight for a drink of water. But Billy has learned from his grandfather the love and reverence that that wild and barren territory deserves. And during his walks with him he has seen countless wonders that have fascinated or terrified him, but whose memory stirs inside him, sometimes without knowing what it means, except perhaps that that land, as the natives already thought, has something sacred. In the summer of his twelve years, Billy is discovering many things, among them that life can turn upside down at any moment: the United States Air Force is preparing to expropriate his grandfather's land, on which he wants install a missile testing range. Everything is for national security and against the Soviet enemy. Billy can't help but ask himself certain questions: does the government have the right to do something like this? Whose land is it after all? And the mountains, the rivers...? From his grandfather? From the Indians from whom his grandfather's father stole her? From the Government that is trying to steal it now? But, be that as it may, the old man does not agree with the authorities, nor does he feel any respect for that supposed omnipotent State, its army and its interests. He believes that when a law is unjust, it is normal for a just man who is guided only by his conscience to become an outlaw. Billy, of course, intends to fight alongside him.
