Affliction

Sixteen-year-old Sage comes home one day to find her mother unconscious. Her dad is busy at work and the emergency lines are down, so she risks her life by driving out in a pouring rainstorm in bumper-to-bumper traffic. After nearly running out of gas, she makes it to the hospital, only to find out that her mother has a brain tumor. Although Sage’s father is a typical white-collared worker, his salary is barely enough to keep the family alive. With the prices of everything on the rise and the number of jobs plummeting, Sage faces tremendous pressure from her father and intense competition with her peers at school. Just when things couldn’t get worse, a street gang burns down her neighborhood leaving Sage with nowhere to run. Her parents abandon her after struggling to make ends meet in a deep economic recession. Sage has no choice but to accept her fate of wandering around the streets and eating from garbage dumps for the rest of her life until she crosses paths with a mysterious young man. To survive, they have to resist those in power, rebel groups, and the wrath of nature, all while battling with their past, present, and future. But to find peace, they have to search within themselves. *For readers ages 16 and up: Contains violence, thematic elements, mild sexuality, and swearing. **New edition: 208 pages, 6"x9", single-spaced, 10 point font. Still 97,000 words.