Zane Grey 
Wanderer of the Wasteland [PDF ebook] 
(Illustrated Edition)

Zane Grey’s take on Homer’s Odyssey turns up in Wanderer of the Wasteland, the story of a boy named Adam who flees his past and a terrible crime. Adam seeks refuge in the desert, where life is unrelentingly hard and every day brings a battle against the alkali sands, scorching heat, lonely nights, no-account highway men, and tempting yet treacherous women. It’s a coming-of-age tale and a landscape painting and an adventure story, as well as a romance novel and an existentialist inquiry into the nature of man’s solitude and unhappiness. And GOLD! Lots of GOLD!