The Fifth Sacred Thing (Maya Greenwood Book 1)

The Fifth Sacred Thing follows a twenty-first century California clan caught between two opposing worlds—one based on tolerance, the other on repression. The novel explores themes of freedom and slavery, love and war, and potential futures for humanity. The story is framed by the Declaration of the Four Sacred Things, which identifies air, fire, water, and earth as sacred elements essential to all life. According to this declaration, these things have value beyond their usefulness to humans and should serve as the standard by which governments, laws, and economics are judged. All people and living things are considered sacred and equal. The declaration asserts that justice and ecological balance are necessary to sustain freedom, and that honoring the sacred creates conditions for nourishment, knowledge, freedom, and beauty to flourish.