And Yesterday Is Gone

An epic coming-of-age novel about the bonds and history between two men that intertwine their families together—for better and for worse.

Steve is a seventeen-year-old runaway when he meets, Juan, the son of a fugitive drug lord. The two work together, deep in the Calaveras Mountains of California, on a large marijuana-growing operation run by Juan’s father. Their friendship is fueled by the brutal conditions and horrific events that define their day-to-day lives.

The utter loneliness of their world creates a lasting bond, and the boys finally escape. Steve knows the two will be friends for life—but Juan hopes they will be something more. When they grow to manhood, Juan’s love for Steve endures. Steve marries, has children, and fulfills his dream of becoming a journalist for San Francisco’s leading newspaper. Juan becomes a famous artist who loves Steve’s son as though the boy was his own, confessing to Steve that, “He is the only part of you that I can ever claim.”

By turns heartbreaking, emotional, and provocative, And Yesterday Is Gone is a must-read novel about the changes—unexpected, unacceptable, and life-threatening—that can alter our lives over the decades.

Dolores Durando, born in 1921, is the author of And Yesterday Is Gone, Beyond the Bougainvillea, and Out of the Darkness. She served on mental health advisory boards, both in California and Oregon, retiring at age seventy to write, paint watercolors, and sculpt. She lives independently in a cottage on the doorstep of Grayback Mountain in Williams, Oregon, with her corgi and two cats.