A Historical Novel

On Colorado's High Plains, Greenwood County's Mexican, Japanese, and Anglo enclaves coexist in an uneasy truce, until Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Decades before talk of building a great wall on the southern border or registering Muslims, Greenwood is split apart. A sign appears in the barbershop window: “J*ps Shaved Free-Not Responsible for Accidents-$0.25 for a J*p ear.” 
A fine piece of work. ... As a big fan of Kent Haruf, I've been hoping to read someone who could capture the vivid feel for life on the plains of Colorado as he evoked it. Thanks for giving me some more of the feel of his writing.
Patrick McWilliams

The Story

Art and Martha Lundgren, numbed by grief after their infant daughter’s death, surmount personal loss to covertly assist Japanese on neighboring farms who struggle with wartime travel and financial restrictions. In the face of labor and equipment shortages, they hire members of the Marquez family. Martha’s friend, a navy nurse in Manila, and Marquez cousins on Bataan and Corregidor are among the missing.

When construction begins on nearby Camp Amache, an internment site for thousands of Japanese forcibly relocated from the West Coast, Greenwood’s Japanese Farmers’ Association donates its abandoned schoolhouse to the VFW hoping to assuage the hate. The sheriff discovers a naval map of the Pacific in an old desk, and the FBI turns it over to Congressman Dies. His Un-American Activities Committee uses it as proof of Japanese belligerency before Pearl Harbor, which implicates Martha's friends. She confronts the racial hostility and investigates the suspected confinement of former Greenwood residents at Amache, threatening her family’s reputation, and her life.​
As a Japanese-American native of Colorado, I am delighted with the accuracy of Purvis-Smith's novel. ... As you travel through it, you can sense the depth of the emotions of people living in such perilous and frightening experiences of rejection, even though they had learned to be Americans.
Rev. Allen Maruyama, PhD
                                                                                                                                                                            

Appearances

Ginny speaks about her research and experience writing Greenwood Riven. These are her appearances since publishing the novel:
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  • Arno Book Club, April 6, 2018, Centennial, CO
  • American Association of University Women, "Hostile Territory," February 15, 2018, Lubbock,
  • Tattered Cover Book Store Author Event, August 13, 2017, Denver, CO
  • Bookbar, Local Author Happy Hour, August 12, 2017, Denver, CO
  • John W. Rawlings Heritage Center, May 27, 2017, Las Animas, CO
  • Big Timbers Museum, May 25, 2017, Lamar, CO
  • BIG TIMBERS MUSEUM, MAY 25, 2017, LAMAR, CO
  • Book Launch, January 30, 2017, Stapleton, CO​