First published 2025
Larette Embers parks her RV outside San Bernardino Hospital in August 2020. The ICU nurse has moved out of her home to protect her husband Grief and son Dante from the virus she encounters daily. Three other nurses join her in the makeshift community. Cherrise Martinez sent her daughter Raquel away to the date gardens of Coachella for safety. Two traveling nurses, Pam Ott from Indiana and Marisol Manalang from Sacramento, complete their circle. The women work brutal shifts caring for dying COVID patients, then return to their aluminum sanctuary where they share meals and cigarettes. They tend each other's wounds while keeping the worst of their hospital experiences locked away. The desert heat presses down as they navigate between their duty to strangers and their love for each other. Their bond deepens through crisis, creating something sacred from loss.
Genres: fiction, medical, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, slice-of-life
Setting: Coachella, Indiana, Sacramento, San Bernardino
Period: August 2020
352 pages · Hardcover · Counterpoint
Content warnings: death, medical-trauma