If you've ever looked back on a formative chapter of your life and wondered what really happened — and what it meant — this story is for you.
This novel began more than twenty years ago as an idea no one quite knew what to do with.
It is surreal without being fantastical.
A coming-of-age story that resists neat definition.
A myth-in-the-making rooted in a temporary desert city and the people who bring it to life.
Over countless drafts, revisions, and reimaginings, the story evolved, not toward perfect accuracy, but toward clarity, resonance, and meaning. Characters were combined, softened, sharpened, or entirely reinvented. Scenes were reshaped to protect privacy and serve the narrative. What remains is not evidence, but experience.
This book invites you to read not for facts, but for feeling.
Not for certainty, but for recognition.
Sarah Marshall - Author
Surreal
without being fantastical
Coming-of-Age
that resists neat definition
Myth-in-the-Making
rooted in a temporary city
A NOTE ON
Truth & Memory
Readers are invited to hold these pages as story, not transcript
Memory is imperfect. Perspective is personal. Time distorts everything it touches. This novel makes no claim to documentary truth. Names have been changed. Events altered. Some moments invented outright. Any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental and unintended. What you will find instead is emotional truth , the kind that lingers, resonates, and asks you to reflect on your own remembered versions of the past.
What you will find is emotional truth - the kind that lingers, resonates, and asks you to reflect on your own remembered versions of the past.
THE JOURNEY
Behind The Pages
A vast, improbable constellation of teachers, mentors, readers, collaborators, and fellow travelers, many of them part of a temporary city that rises from dust and disappears again each year. The Burning Man community, its organizers, and the thousands of Black Rock City citizens who helped build that world shaped this story long before it reached the page. Early manuscripts were read by Sarah's community. Feedback was offered. Materials were shared, some of them mysterious, all of them inspiring.
THIS BOOK IS THE RESULT OF SHARED IMAGINATION, AND BELIEF.
Above all, two collaborators made this book possible.
Michèle Lamarre, whose unwavering support, clarity, and honesty carried the manuscript through every incarnation.
Rebecca Marshall, the author’s daughter, collaborator, and artist. She helped inhabit every character, protect their integrity, and co-develop the heart of the story. The artwork throughout the novel is entirely hers.
THIS BOOK IS FOR
The Seekers
Those who crave for love stories that blur reality and myth.
Those that are drawn to memory, identity, and transformation.
Those who appreciate nonlinear journeys and imperfect narrators.
Those who believe that truth can be felt even when it cannot be proven.
"This book is not a record of events. It is a tapestry of remembrance - woven from truth, distortion, longing, and meaning."