For the Death of Dustin Essary: A Music Novel

A selfish, neurotic, particularly naïve 13-year-old kid named Tim lives a typical adolescence until his best friend Dustin Essary shares with him a series of extraordinary dreams—and the fact that he has cancer. Dustin tragically dies that summer of 1978, which impacts Tim for the rest of his life and brings about a strange, musical revelation that helps him process the whole experience. Set in Phoenix, Arizona, this true-life story leads to the writing of three songs more than 30 years later, which evoke the dreams Dustin shared with Tim decades before.