First published 2015
David Puckett stands at eighteen in the West Texas sandhills, where winds push sand across peaks sixty miles of gleaming white dunes. The year is the late 1950s, and David finds himself pulled between two girls who represent opposite futures. One embodies artistry and passion, drawing him toward creative expression and emotional connection. The other offers a path to power through avoiding intimacy altogether. David's internal conflict mirrors the shifting landscape around him, his identity as unstable as the walking dunes themselves. His family has already failed him, leaving him to navigate young love's sweet awkwardness and early ambition's fierce demands on his own. The era may look like carefree innocence from a distance, but David's world contains poverty, violence, and misery alongside rock and roll, television, and suburban growth. As circumstances storm around him, David must choose which definition of success will guide him into manhood.
Genres: 20th-century, coming-of-age, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, fish-out-of-water
Setting: West Texas, Texas
Period: 1950s
302 pages · Kindle Edition · The Permanent Press