Reeling from his mother's suicide, seventeen-year-old Alex Bainbridge retreats from the world around him, often finding solace on a secluded island behind his house. As an Armenian-American living in a small Southern town, Alex struggles to fit in. His close friendship with the outspoken Jillian Dambro is his only saving grace, until he meets and falls in love with Robby LaMont—an introverted new student at school. As the year unfolds and the lives of the adults around them unravel, the three teens form anunbreakable bond, vowing to do anything to stay together—even if it means leaving everything behind.

David-Matthew Barnes is the author of the young adult novels Mesmerized and Swimming to Chicago, and the literary suspense novel Accidents Never Happen, published by Bold Strokes Books. He wrote and directed the coming-of-age film Frozen Stars, which received worldwide distribution. He is the author of over forty stage plays that have been performed in three languages in eight countries. His literary work has appeared in over one hundred publications including The Best Stage Scenes, The Best Men's Stage Monologues, The Best Women's Stage Monologues, The Comstock Review, Review Americana, and The Southeast Review. David-Matthew is the national recipient of the 2011 Hart Crane Memorial Poetry Award. In addition, he has received the Carrie McCray Literary Award, the Slam Boston Award for Best Play, and earned double awards for poetry and playwriting in the World AIDS Day Writing Contest. David-Matthew earned a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. He is a faculty member at Southern Crescent Technical College in Griffin, Georgia, where he teaches courses in English, humanities, and speech.

David-Matthew can be contacted at lettersfromreaders@gmail.com

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