Marlowe Sand recollects 15 years of relentless pursuit of liberation as a student of guru, Andrew Cohen. For a woman from the remote English countryside destined to be a wife, mother and ordinary professional, the meeting with a modern-day, radical Buddha bore extreme consequences for her and her children. She develops her story in intriguingly deft strokes, capturing the interior experiences of a person being drawn ever deeper into the cult setting of a charismatic and despotic guru. She invites the reader to share her experiences of love and liberation, pain and agony and excruciating disillusionment. Marlowe Sand doesn’t blame, instead she paints a picture of a complex, dangerous phenomena. While she is unambiguous about the destructive nature of this communal setting and each participants’ responsibility for its co-creation, Marlowe’s reckoning is with herself. Paradise and Promises is a spiritual memoir by coincidence but more importantly it is an audacious self-reflection on choices, consequences and reconciliation. Almost anyone will find this stark “coming of age” narrative compelling.