Desert Echoes

From Abdi Nazemian, the award-winning author of Like a Love Story and Only This Beautiful Moment, comes a suspenseful contemporary YA novel about loss and love.

Fifteen-year-old Kam is head over heels for Ash, the boy who swept him off his feet. But his family and best friend, Bodie, are worried. Something seems off about Ash. He also has a habit of disappearing, at times for days. When Ash asks Kam to join him on a trip to Joshua Tree, the two of them walk off into the sunset . . . but only Kam returns.

Two years later, Kam is still left with a hole in his heart and too many unanswered questions. So it feels like fate when a school trip takes him back to Joshua Tree. On the trip, Kam wants to find closure about what happened to Ash but instead finds himself in danger of facing a similar fate. In the desert, Kam must reckon with the truth of his past relationship—and the possibility of opening himself up to love once again.

Desert Echoes is a propulsive, moving story about human resilience and connection.

He went to the desert for closure, but what happens when the truth is more dangerous than not knowing?

• A Heart-Pounding Mystery: Kam was the last person to see Ash alive before he vanished in Joshua Tree. Two years later, a school trip back to the same desert puts Kam in danger of facing the same fate.
• Grief and First Love: A moving exploration of loving someone who is gone, reckoning with the truth of a complicated relationship, and finding the courage to open your heart again.
• Secrets and Lies: Something was always off about Ash, but Kam was too in love to see it. Now, he must confront the secrets Ash kept—and the ones in his own family.
• An Atmospheric Desert Setting: The stark, beautiful, and treacherous landscape of Joshua Tree becomes a character in itself, holding the key to Kam's past and his future.