An unrelentingly human novel with realist prose that presents more questions than answers; a work that sheds light on the darkest corners of the human condition and casts a new color onto those corners that are already illuminated.

Before turning fifteen, Sandra Martos discovers her sexual orientation and has to deal with her parents’ separation, two circumstances that make her feel like she’s at a disadvantage relative to the world around her—until she meets Isa, an older girl who will open a new door in her life. From that moment on, she’s constantly at war with her roots, and she’ll try to find answers and refuge outside the family sphere by turning to friendship, movies, and books, the only places where it seems like emptiness and lovelessness can be beautiful.

Unaware of time’s transience, she’ll plunge head-first into life with the conviction that her nonconformity will not subside, that there is magic to be found in friendship and sometimes in love, and that feelings last forever, unaware that friends can be water, but they can also be the desert.