This month, Peconic First Books announced the release of The Days Before Tomorrow, a debut novel by Mark Hass, a Paradise Valley resident, former journalist and Arizona State University professor.
This coming-of-age story brings to life the tumultuous years between the two world wars through the eyes of a young man and his sister growing up in what is now western Ukraine, according to a press release.
“When I set out to write the book, I could not have anticipated the modern-day Russian invasion of Ukraine and the rise of anti-Jewish rhetoric around the world,” Hass said in the release. “So, there’s a bit of a history lesson in the book, but it is much more than that. It’s the unique story about a trusting and superstitious teenage boy named Wolchi, and his bookish but independent older sister, named Leja, becoming young adults in a world gone mad.”