It is 1934, Anders Johanneson has been without work for a year and has been growing increasingly angry over the Depression and lack of employment. The tension builds until, in an argument with his wife, he strikes her. His fear of becoming a violent man like his father motivates him to leave home in search of work. Anders is drawn into the hobo lifestyle leading him to join the On-to-Ottawa trek that ends with the Regina Riot.

Five years later Anders' wife, Marit, and their two children, have heard nothing from him for years but still hope for his return. Marit falls victim to Saskatchewan's Mental Hygiene Act (1936) after a neighbour attacks her and she defends herself. She is committed to the Sun Valley Asylum (modeled on the notorious Weyburn, SK Souris Valley Mental Health Hospital), and her children are taken in by friends. Eventually the horrors of asylum life chip away at Marit's natural sense of optimism. She is finally forced to accept that her only hope of release, and being reunited with her children, is to consent to either a lobotomy or insulin shock therapy. Both procedures present the risk of brain damage or death. Should she gamble her mental well-being and her life for the chance of freedom? What happened to Anders? Will he ever return?

Through The Dust is a story set in 1930s-40s Saskatchewan about the loss of home, self respect, and autonomy, but it is also about love, forgiveness, and hope. Loosely based on the experiences of my mother's family combined with comprehensive research, the story explores both the dark history of one of Saskatchewan's mental asylums with its questionable procedures, and the R.B. Bennet government's mishandling of the Depression. Through The Dust made the long list in a literary novel contest, and an excerpt of it has been published in a literary journal. This book will appeal to readers of historical fiction in the style of Genevieve Graham (The Forgotten Home Child) or Kristin Hannah (The Four Winds).