What if keeping a promise meant losing yourself?

Dessa Sinich is shaped by loss and bound by a vow to her late twin: to help raise his son alongside his widow. For years, she's lived inside that promise—one she never truly chose. But to break free, she must cross not only physical borders, from the forests of the Pacific Northwest to the hidden villages of Bulgaria, but also emotional ones: between duty and freedom, closeness and autonomy, memory and selfhood.

Dessa's Crossing is a literary exploration of inner landscapes and quiet rebellion, told through a novel and seven linked short stories that expand the world around Dessa and those bound to her.

Inspired by the author's daughter, a volunteer mountain rescuer in Washington State.

“Radenski’s prose is lyrical yet precise… a quiet urgency that lingers long after the final page.” —Sarah Jensen, Goodreads reviewer

Cover image: The Lawrence Tree by Georgia O’Keeffe (public domain).