Sacrament

Susan Straight's Sacrament delves into the lives of nurses and the community in Riverside during the early, harrowing months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Drawing on local detail and intimate storytelling, the novel portrays the emotional and practical toll on caregivers, their families, and neighborhoods.

Straight explores themes of memory, loss, resilience, and the moral complexities that arise in crisis.

The book foregrounds the often-unseen labor of nurses and the communal rituals of grieving and support that emerge in catastrophe.

Sacrament situates personal stories within broader social and historical contexts, asking readers to remember and reckon with the pandemic's human costs.