This novel is based very, very loosely on my first visit to Israel, which took place during the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college. There, I stayed on a kibbutz not so different from Kfar Avivim, and I fell in love. With being on my own, with the land, with a boy, with the whole idea of romance. But that is where the similarities end. Sarah is very much her own person, and her adventures are different from my own. Promise.

This trip is Sarah’s first time going away without her family, and she is terrified and thrilled, all at once, but her journey entails more than just being on an adventure far from home; it’s about figuring out how to fit in when you’ve felt so apart all your life.