Daniel Nero is about to graduate, but the sudden death of a classmate derails everything he thought he understood about his future, leaving just one certainty: he can’t let life slip away. So armed with a backpack, a vague plan, and some blank notebooks, Daniel throws himself into the world under the excuse of writing his final thesis.
By working in hostels, staying with strangers, hitchhiking, going to music festivals, falling in and out of love, and especially by speaking with fellow travelers trying to make sense of their own detours and motivations, Daniel begins to realize that maybe the real thesis is not something you submit but something you live through. Between one city and the next, he’ll learn that when life doesn’t give you beautiful sunsets on its own, it’s up to you to go out there and paint the sky red yourself.
Paint the Sky Red is not a coming-of-age; it’s a coming-to-terms story—for anyone still wondering if they’re asking the right questions. With raw honesty and sharp insight, it captures the messy, electric in-betweenness of being young and the need to feel everything at least once.
“Yes. Or what you said about sunsets—that when the sky turns red, life feels a little lighter, like the world pauses for a moment and gives us a break from all the bad.”
“Yeah, but you can’t always catch those sunsets. The sky isn’t always painted in colors. Life isn’t always that beautiful. […] So, what does your work teach us?”
“That sometimes, you have to go out there and paint the sky red yourself.”