Cast Out

Centuries after our civilization has crumbled the surviving people live in tribes, close to the Goddess' Earth. The Southlands have known peace for generations, but the Jessiasts, a burgeoning religious order, have built cities and mean to spread their influence over the known world, slowly swallowing tribes into the fold.

Bryne's tribe is still loyal to the Goddess, but a faction of Jess' followers is growing. Twiggy, rebellious, strange, and beautiful, Bryne is said to be an affront to their god. At six, after refusing the right of passage of boys, he is ostracized by his people and it is declared that he will be exiled when he becomes an adult at fifteen. When the time nears, Bryne sews his pants into a dress, choosing to walk in the world as a woman.

Forced on a perilous journey to find a new home, Bryne wanders deep into the unfathomable world beyond the goatskin tents of her birth tribe. She assumes different identities as she weaves her way up the Great Valley, landing in the city of Jessenton. She becomes an acolyte in the temple, a member of a sisterhood of sinners, a consort to the most powerful man in the Southlands, but she belongs to none of these lives and none belong to her. One danger-filled situation leads to the next, and Bryne's search for home seems always beyond reach.

"In CAST OUT, the audience has the terrific fortune to enter an unforgettable world of fantasy and social allegory. The journey hits the reader in both hemispheres, the brain and the heart. But it's Lerman's language that steals the show here: He has a poet's eye for detail, rendered in kinetic, unforgettable prose."
- Joshua Mohr, author of Sirens and Some Things That Meant the World to Me

This book contains mature situations.