'All my life the idea of America had occupied a space in my psyche. … I needed to see it. I needed to find a way to live with it and not despair. I needed to update my idea of America.'

For New Zealand writer Jenny Robin Jones the United States has always been an enigma, a series of questionable notions formed through a lifetime. 'What is America?' she asks herself. Can she rely on her own personal impressions?

Jones' journey takes her to the spectacular desert lands of Taos and Santa Fe in New Mexico, where she encounters not only the Pueblo people and their rich culture but also the memory of writers and artists such as herself who have made the same journey in the past — D H Lawrence, Willa Cather, Georgia O'Keeffe, Dorothy Brett, Ansel Adams, Dennis Hopper and many others.

Where will the dice in this game she calls 'travel roulette' lead her? Superbly written and researched, Love America contains a fine writer's highly personal, richly imaginative insights into a small but fascinating corner of America.

Love America: On the Trail of Writers & Artists in New Mexico