Moment of Truth

Fourteen-year-old Ruth Halsey awakens expecting the familiar comfort of her Pennsylvania home: her brother’s paintings, the old maple tree, and her faithful doll Essie. But the room begins to shimmer, and the world she knows fractures into a cramped metal chamber with crude imitations of everything she loves. Outside, beyond false windows, lies a red Martian wasteland.

Ruth is frightened and confused, especially when a strange man in dusty coveralls enters and calls her by name. He says she has been silent for weeks and is finally getting better, but Ruth cannot understand how her memories, her home, and even her body of experience could have led her here. As she struggles to separate illness from reality, she must confront a future far from the life she thought she knew—and discover what kind of strength survival on Mars will demand.