Celeste & Chris tells the story of two friends coming of age in the 1960s. In their isolation from others, they redefine the terms of the oppressive society—religious, social, racial, economic, sexual—in which they were raised and form a bond that helps them survive the warfare they undertake against their world’s mores and strictures.

Due to a high school prank gone wrong, Chris’ parents believe their laid-back parenting put him on the wrong path. They overcompensate by sending him to military school. While there, Chris begins an illicit affair with his art teacher. Celeste runs away from home with the intention of rescuing Chris. On her way, she’s picked up hitchhiking by a charming Vietnam draft-dodger. Both Chris and Celeste find their sexual liberation comes with stipulations and disillusion. As things devolve, the friends must come to terms with the perils of their illusions and the price of freedom and imagine a future for themselves and each other.

Our cover cooks dished out Celeste’s dream to be a chimp vet in space onto the cover. The design invokes 1960s graphics as a queer burst of liberation, whim and desire from her own words: “Celeste sounds celestial. Like comets and constellations and galaxies.” Celeste is seen lying down at the bottom of the cover, a rocket taking off to the stars from her belly in what could also be a visual allegory of the birth of her baby boy, named Thoreau after her favorite writer and inspiration. To fit our design, the author decided to quote him on the cover too: “This whole earth which we inhabit is but a point in space.”