Gold Medal Winner of the California Book Award
Southwest Book of the Year Top Pick
Longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates Prize
Longlisted for the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award
Named a Best Book of the Year by The Orange County Register, Chicago Review of Books & Kirkus Reviews
Named a Most Anticipated Book by Los Angeles Times, Alta, & Literary Hub
Named a Book to Watch by The Washington Post & Library Journal
“This isn’t just a COVID novel; it’s also a chance to observe the impact of this singular moment on a community that has become synonymous with Straight, who has described Riverside as ‘my destiny. It’s what I’m here to write about.'” —Colin Dwyer, NPR
“Sacrament is a rare novel that deepens the human drama of Covid . . . In populating Sacrament with a cast of Black, Mexican American, Indigenous and Filipina essential workers during the pre-vaccine days of Covid, Straight transcends the mundanity of Covid novels that have concerned themselves with upper-class social distancers . . . Straight’s reverence for the work of nurses is clear . . . writing directly from their perspectives, she avoids the saccharine tone of some appreciations . . . Sacrament is a deeply humane novel about the tenderness and heartache of caring for strangers, the misguided ways we try to protect the people we love the most by hiding our hardest truths, and the strength that can be found in community.” —Kristen Martin, The Washington Post
“Susan Straight’s Sacrament—her best novel yet—is an ode to California nurses during COVID surge. The Los Angeles Times dubbed Straight the ‘bard of overlooked California,’ and Sacrament proves the praise . . . Diving deeper than the quotidian insults of her characters’ loneliness, poverty and fear, Straight brings us inside their exhausted minds . . . Sacrament broadens the reader’s understanding of community beyond flesh-and-blood friends, family and neighbors. The love and care that flow within her community of characters draws the reader into their bright, tight circle, making the characters’ loved ones and troubles feel like the reader’s own. Spoiler alert: The nurses’ sacrifices, strengths and foibles; their families, robbed not only of their moms and wives and daughters but also of any shred of safety; and their patients […] will likely make the reader see and respect and love not only these characters, but the consistently brilliant author who gave them life on the page of this, her finest book.” —Meredith Maran, Los Angeles Times
“Sacrament offers a powerful look at lives disrupted by the pandemic in Riverside and San Bernardino counties . . . Straight writes beautifully about all of the senses—the peppery taste of a Mexican Coke or light shining through a sprinkler spray—and she’s at her best seeing the people and places others miss.” —Erik Pederson, The Orange County Register
“[A]n unforgettable cast of characters whose exhaustion will creep into your bones and whose commitment will inspire your heart.” —Lisa Gresham, Cascadia Daily News
“This book will connect for many people through experiences, people, and locations to say the least. Some poignant moments without a doubt, some lighthearted moments which will bring smiles as well.” —KVCR-FM
“In National Book Award finalist Susan Straight’s new stunner, a group of ICU nurses living in hospital-adjacent RV’s desperately confront early COVID-19 in a California desert town while isolating from loved ones. When one nurse’s troubled 15-year-old daughter goes missing, the community bands together in a desperate search, leading to a monumentally moving reminder that heroism and humanity persist even in the midst of chaos.” —People (Book of the Week)
“Straight weaves a tale with an almost epic-reminiscent quality, with complex characters of varying generations, multiple side plots and poetic metaphors so rich and raw it tears the memory of its readers wide open. A literary time capsule, this narrative will undoubtedly strike close to home for all who happen upon it . . . Giving each of its characters a voice and its readers an opportunity to peer through the lens of their unique perspectives, Sacrament is a novel of stark awakening . . . Speaking to the deepest hopes and sufferings of humanity in a time when our world was turned inside out, Straight’s novel is one that begs to have a thousand essays written about it.” —Kate Johnson, The Cuestonian
“Straight masterfully explores the interwoven intricacies of the moment—tackling race, class, gender, and the ways in which care was complicated and challenged in America. Sacrament is the COVID pandemic novel. But if you’re hesitant with reckoning with that time again, I promise you Straight’s brilliant cast of characters and beautiful, rageful drama will make it worth your time.” —Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books
“It’s this intimate relationship with place, storytelling, and history that defines Straight’s literary world of freeways, first responders, lowriders, and high school sports teams. In her latest and 10th novel, Sacrament, a COVID-impacted San Bernardino takes center stage.” —José Vadi, Alta
“The question of what constitutes the COVID novel canon will probably be debated forever, but there’s no doubt that Susan Straight’s new book about ICU nurses will be one of them.” —Julia Haas, Literary Hub
“A Covid-19 novel but also so much more. Opening during the spring of 2020, this book refracts the early days of the pandemic with the acuity of a laser, not unlike Straight’s previous novel, Mecca. But if this is the situation of the narrative, its story is the complexity of love and longing, the edgy insistence of the human heart . . . Don’t be misled, though: This is no mere sequel, but what we might imagine as a parallel text, an adjacent set of stories taking place in a world where linearity, chronology, have become words from a different lexicon. This simultaneity makes the relationship between the novels nuanced and compelling, a broadening rather than a lengthening. It’s an astonishing move, one that feels true both to the moment of the action and the moment in which we are reading, the aftermath of a crisis, or a series of crises, that has not fully gone away. Straight reminds us of where we have been and where we are going without once looking away.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Told in alternating points of view, the narrative captures the heroism and sacrifice of healthcare workers during the pandemic, and is shot through with rich depictions of Southern California’s landscape . . . It’s a vibrant drama.” —Publishers Weekly
“In Sacrament, once again, Susan Straight delivers a transcendent and essential novel that shines light on those too often overlooked and illuminates humanity and community in our darkest days. Sacrament is a book about the pandemic and first responders, sure, but it’s a canonical California novel written by a storyteller at the top of her game.” —Ivy Pochoda, author of Ecstasy
“What a rich, beautiful novel, rooted in the grim landscape of Southern California in the grips of Covid. The hardship, the longing for connection, the bravery of essential workers in the trenches of August 2020. Straight’s characters feel like they were formed from the clay of the earth and given the breath of life.” —Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay
“The rage and fear of the pandemic spared no one, but it also brought about reminders of our commitments to each other in times of great need. Susan Straight is a writer who understands that communities are built strong through care—we are sustained by the most courageous and selfless among us. Sacrament is one of her best books yet, a graceful song full of compassion for those we lost and gratitude for those who tended to them.” —Manuel Muñoz, author of The Consequences
