Claire Vaye Watkins, famous for her contemporary depictions of the American West, translates those themes into a new genre with Gold Fame Citrus. At heart, the novel is about one woman's search for family and home, but the milieu in which she struggles is one ravaged by climate change. The West is nearly devoid of water, and the Rockies have been overwhelmed with desert sand, turning the landscape into an unforgiving, unending test of endurance.