BRILLIANTLY RIVETING. *
THOUGHT-PROVOKING AND STIRRING. **
Award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst has been praised for her captivating novels that merge the darkly imagined with very real themes of self-discovery and destiny. In The Lost, we’ll discover just what it means to lose one’s way….
It was only meant to be a brief detour. But then Lauren finds herself trapped in a town called Lost on the edge of a desert, filled with things abandoned, broken and thrown away. And when she tries to escape, impassible dust storms and something unexplainable lead her back to Lost again and again. The residents she meets there tell her she’s going to have to figure out just what she’s missing—and what she’s running from—before she can leave. So now Lauren’s on a new search for a purpose and a destiny. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll be found….
Against the backdrop of this desolate and mystical town, Sarah Beth Durst writes an arresting, fantastical novel of one woman’s impossible journey…and her quest to find her fate.
*Booklist, starred review, on Vessel **Kirkus Reviews, starred review, on Vessel
Praise for Sarah Beth Durst
Vessel
Andre Norton Award Finalist 2012 Kirkus Best Teen Books 2012
“Durst offers a meditation on leadership and power and a vivid story set outside the typical Western European fantasy milieu. From the gripping first line, a fast-paced, thought-provoking and stirring story of sacrifice.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Readers will feel the desert heat, the earth-numbing droughts, the vicious sandstorms and resulting sandwolves, and the bizarre sensations of a goddess living within the body of its human vessel. Brilliantly riveting.”
—Booklist (starred review)
Enchanted Ivy
“Every page of Enchanted Ivy weaves a delightful, seductive spell. Lily is a true heroine—smart, intrepid, and utterly human. I’d give anything to travel to the world of Sarah Beth Durst’s imagination!”
—Jeri Smith-Ready, award-winning author of Shade
“With her deft prose and runaway imagination, [Durst] creates a tale filled with rich characters, wonderful story-telling,
and puzzle pieces that fall together perfectly.” —Chicago Examiner
The Lost
Sarah Beth Durst
For my mother,
Mary Lee Bartlett
Contents
Things I lost:
a stick of Chapstick
a few quarters
one turquoise earring, a gift
my old college roommate’s new phone number
my left sandal
Mr. Rabbit, my favorite stuffie from my preschool years
my way
Chapter One
For the first hundred miles, I see only the road and my knuckles, skin tight across the bones, like my mother’s hands, as I clutch the steering wheel. For the second hundred miles,