In exploring the panorama of the Antelope Valley's history and its people's varied aspirations, determination, and accomplishments, it is easy to see the lasting and dramatic impacts they have made. A few are famous, like young Frances Gumm, who went on to become legendary actress Judy Garland, or Richard "Dick" Rutan, who circled the world nonstop on a single tank of gas in the Rutan Voyager aircraft. Most, however, never knew fame during their lives. Some came seeking gold or worked on the railroads, the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and Borax 20 Mule Teams. Others forged ahead, farmed difficult landscapes, and found success in providing for their families. A poet laureate, the father of Death Valley geology, a suffragette who went on to achieve national fame, and individuals who broke through color barriers are among those who have made the Antelope Valley what it is today.

Winner of the Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gittings Literature Award Finalist for the Binghamton University’s John Gardner Fiction Book Award Finalist for the Saroyan Prize for Fiction Longlisted for the Chautauqua Prize "Hilarious, Devious, Original, and Unforgettable."—Karen Russell A vivid and assured work of fiction, from a major new voice, following the life of a young man growing up, leaving home, and coming back again, marked by the start beauty of California's Mojave Desert and the various fates of those who leave and those who stay behind. This series of powerful, intertwining stories illuminates Daley Kushner's world - the family, friends and community that have both formed and constrained him, and his new life in San Francisco. Back home, the desert preys on those who cannot conform: an alfalfa farmer on the outskirts of town; two young girls whose curiosity leads to danger; a black politician who once served as his school's confederate mascot; Daley's mother, an immigrant from Armenia; and Daley himself, introspective and queer. Meanwhile, in another desert on the other side of the world, war threatens to fracture Daley's most meaningful - and most fraught - connection to home, his friendship with Robert Karinger. A luminous debut, Desert Boys by Chris McCormick traces the development of towns into cities, of boys into men, and the haunting effects produced when the two transformations overlap. Both a bildungsroman and a portrait of a changing place, the book mines the terrain between the desire to escape and the hunger to belong.