Sarah (Paperback or Softback)

Sarah entered the art program at NYU determined to become the best painter she could be, and soon after graduation her paintings begin to sell. Sarah becomes obsessed with painting. Her paintings are emotionally charged and powerful, showing a confidence she feels in her life of art, but not her relationships-especially with her family. She feels overshadowed and distanced by her very successful father, whom she both resents and reveres.

On a trip to Milan Sarah falls in love and the future looks bright. But when she loses her younger sister, she is overwhelmed with guilt for not being the big sister she should have been. Sarah's feelings of remorse damage her love affair and darken her painting style. When her mother dies Sarah finds, as many of us do, that she never really knew her and now wishes she did. Sarah resolves to reconnect with her father, but in doing so learns that memories are sometimes found to be false. But as her father tells her, "We can remake our memories, and in so doing shape the future."

Mike Trial has lived in many cities across the United States, spent a few years overseas, and now makes his home in Columbia, Missouri.