Dan Moores new book, The Summer of Billy Stevens, follows Billy, on the cusp of graduating from high school, who feels he is going insane losing all sense of reality and well being. When the monotony of the suburbs becomes too much for him, he leaves everything hes ever known and moves to San Francisco, where he realizes nothing is as it seems. After a summer of drugs, love and death, his life and the lives of those close to him will never be the same] In the words of unforgettable character Donny: "Around six years ago I awoke in the middle of the night. There was nowhere to go but back to sleep, and I couldnt find my way there. So, I walked outside into the street to catch some air, and got lost somewhere between the Bay and my doorstep. Thats how I became lost, and Ive been so ever since." Dans journey as a novelist began only recently, with Through The Wall of Rain and Fog -- his edgy, intimate exploration of high school friends coming of age. Through The Wall quickly established Moore as a gifted young writer, as The Summer of Billy Stevens further demonstrates. The characters of Billy Stevens are all new, and what happens in its San Francisco setting jars Moores fans out of the suburban complacency he so deliciously served up in his first novel. Yet, the theme of growing up that began in Through The Wall builds in Billy Stevens into one of growing up and out -- into a bigger, more exciting, and more terrifying world than the suburban ennui Billy flees.