Closer to the Sun, Part One: Embers is a modern literary tragedy that encompasses such themes as the loss of one's innocence and their journey to redefine and fight for their idea of it. The structure of the novel was loosely inspired by John Milton’s Paradise Lost and narrates two separate stories: one of Paradise and one of Hell. The darker of the two is of a desperate heroin addict named Sebastian who lives on the streets in suffering, utterly controlled by his addiction. When he inadvertently stumbles upon his drug dealer's corrupt scheme for power and vengeance, Sebastian realizes that sabotaging it could redeem him for all his past sins, but, on further descent into the underground, he discovers that there is much more at stake than his own redemption as the fate of the whole city falls into his hands....The main story explores the hearts and minds of two families during one hot summer in Virginia, where members from both confront the realities of their perceived paradises built in suburbia, learning that their self-imposed illusions and buried desires could soon bring about their downfall. This story’s heart lies with the families' youngest members: Samuel Atticus Tyler is a cheerful youth exploding through his summer days of naivety, living them almost like he’s in between sweet dreams, as he runs throughout his hometown heaven at an age where he can still be aimless and for that not to be a bad thing. As Samuel prepares to grow up and face the adult world, he encounters the new boy who recently moved in down the street - Daniel Aaron Marshall - who has lost significant faith in his childhood due to the death of his father and the subsequent siege of his broken household by his embattled stepfather. Daniel exposes his new friend to a darker, more complex side of life, and the beliefs of both boys begin to change one another as they spark their dynamic friendship, which questions such things as religion, love, war, growing up, and what it means to feel infinite, as their souls, rich with the burning embers of youth, become ablaze. Read Less