Sugar and Dust

By Ella Rachel Kerr

In a fit of panic and rage, Isabel Carson (Isa) moves to rural Tanzania after the suicide of her mother, Ivy Supeet. As she attempts to acclimate to her new life, Isa finds a job running the business side of a rural tribal school for girls. But while she runs away from the reality of the death of her mother, she finds a new reality highlighted by the child brides of the village in which she lives. Penn Clemence is Isa's friend from high school, as well as a Congolese refugee who never received DACA status in America. Penn reaches out to Isabel with a business proposition: if she will allow the rural school in which she works to be a holding place for kilos of cocaine, then Penn, as well as any other child bride in need of escape, will receive a passport to a new country. For Penn, this means the ability to register for classes at public universities and the chance to apply for meaningful jobs. For young girls with a sealed fate, this could be the chance for a new life.Initially, Isa declines Penn's proposition, but as she gets closer to the young brides and the truths of their situations are revealed, she agrees to allow the school to be a holding place for the cocaine. For every kilo of cocaine that is moved, one new passport is received. Isabel is determined to receive three passports: one for Penn, one for an intelligent woman with a temper to match, and one for a teenage mother who wants a chance to start fresh. But as Isa continues to blur the lines between right and wrong, she finds herself immersed in a world where "too far" is undefined.Isa must learn to walk the tightrope of living in a new world while coming to terms with her mother's death and the past she ran away from. Eventually, Isa learns what she had known all along: family is not only found in blood and courage is almost always a choice.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1729378145
• ISBN13: 9781729378144
• Release Date: November 2018
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.6" x 6.0"