NEWS

The Serra is Burning, in recognition of excellence in writing, wins a Gold Medal at the 2026 International Book Awards.

"In The Serra is Burning, American counselor Daral Boles shares her personal story of moving to the remote mountains of central Portugal to help build a prominent wellness project called the Real Change Retreat Center. What started as a plan for creating a genuine space for healing quickly fell apart because of corrupt leadership and ignored safety rules. Boles watches firsthand as financial stress forces management to bring in people needing serious psychiatric care, blending regular tourists with people in severe crisis. This lack of boundaries creates conflict between the New Age global staff and the traditional local workers. Everything boils over when the Castelo Branco wildfire traps the mountain campus, forcing everyone to make a daring escape to a temporary seminary shelter. Boles’s intense journey shows the dark side of trying to turn nature into a commercial wellness product.

In The Serra is Burning, Daral Boles does an excellent job of showing how corporate arrogance can turn a natural disaster into a bigger catastrophe. Her clinical training gives readers a rare view into how the body remembers trauma and the ethical quandaries that happen when people hold multiple roles in tight-knit places. It is very moving to read about the local Portuguese staff risking everything for a corporation that didn’t appreciate them, all while their own home villages were threatened by fire. By weaving together official forestry statistics and her own subsequent lung illness, Boles shows how Earth’s well-being is deeply tied to our own physical health. The scenes in the temporary Gouveia shelter emphasize how shared trauma binds people together for life. For anyone wanting to grasp the true reality of climate grief, this book is a must-read warning about what happens to real people when systems collapse. Very highly recommended."

PODCASTS

The One Decision with Kim Groshek

Finding Meaning After the Fire | Daral Boles

The Mindset Playground with Louann Hunt

Rebuilding Life after Loss and Finding Meaning Through Storytelling | Daral Boles

Limitless Living Show with Chuck Anderson

She Survived a Wildfire & Found Healing in the Ashes | Daral Boles

Interview with Chestertown Spy Newspaper

Spring 2026

WHAT TO READ NEXT

If you have read The Serra is Burning (and chances are, if you are this far into this website, you have), you know that my go-to response to things that I can’t understand or find overwhelming is to research the heck out of them, to read everything I can find on the subject, and to write and write and write, in an effort to find my way out of the fear and confusion I feel.

For this story, I dipped my toe in many streams of inquiry, from wildfire management to the science of dysfunctional systems, to memoir writing and travelogues. Some of that research found its way into The Serra Is Burning but much of it did not. So, now, in this column, I intend to offer you an annotated library of everything else. My story still feeds my curiosity; I’m still trying to understand what happened and why, what it means, and what we can do about it. I invite you to join me on that journey. Here’s a partial list of the places we could go in the months ahead. I’ll keep you posted.

On Extreme Weather Events (especially Wildfires)