A NOVEL
PILGRIM
He inherits glamour, but not belonging.
He has a name, but not his beginning.
He has a family, but not the whole truth.
He has a name, but not his beginning.
He has a family, but not the whole truth.
Phoenix Pilgrim grows up inside a world built for the camera: Hollywood studios, famous parents, and the subtle burden of a life on display.
Adopted as a child and raised far from the origins he cannot remember, Phoenix learns early how easily identity can become a role. He builds a career in film, inherits the weight of his family's legacy, and spends years moving forward, never looking too closely at what came before.
Then a forgotten thread from his past resurfaces. Following it pulls him away from the glare of Hollywood and across continents, toward a name he does not recognize, a history he was never told, and the quiet question that has followed him all his life: who was he before he became Phoenix Pilgrim?
Sweeping across decades and continents, Pilgrim is a literary novel about family, memory, art, belonging, and the stories we inherit long before we are old enough to choose them.
For readers of The Goldfinch, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, and Everything I Never Told You.
"My life is a puppet show, and I am a mere marionette, controlled from above by strings."
PILGRIMThe darkest cloud is only heavy until it finds the strength to let go. I am Phoenix Pilgrim, finally at peace, lying where the earth ends and the sky begins. My thoughts have finally stopped and are no longer riddled with faces from the past.
The altitude is making my brain both sleepy and at peace. At this height, the air is thin and sweet. The lake next to me is like a painting, reflecting all the beautiful sunset colors. I cannot tell if all these colors are real or if my mind is playing games again.
The soft glare makes me feel at home, putting my mind at ease and into a sweet trance. Here at the edge of the earth, the tight strings of the marionette have finally gone loose. The world has turned to gold, and I am simply part of the light.
Yes, you guessed it right, my friend; you will read about an inconsequential life caught in the web of fate. My life is a puppet show, and I am a mere marionette, controlled from above by strings; my moves depending on God, my marionettist.
From Pilgrim, Prologue
"Here at the edge of the earth, the tight strings of the marionette have finally gone loose."
PILGRIM