"An unforgettable and truly beautiful novel awaits in this journey through grief and love by a woman seeking solitude in the Californian desert."
Death Valley caught me unawares, as I read I fell hook, line, and sinker for this mesmerising and poignant novel. Slip into the reasonings of a woman in need of peace and solitude after the illnesses of both her father and husband. As she wanders the desert trails in California her thoughts expand to encompass her past as well as her present.
Melissa Broder writes with the most eloquent of pens, she captures stark truths and slippery half thoughts, setting them on the page with a beautiful clarity. There is a gloriously dark edgy humour to be found, which sometimes goes into hiding before resurrecting itself in a needed moment. The desert itself joins the woman in her isolation, the sense of place that has been created is exquisite. The path the woman’s mind takes enters an almost fantastical realm while remaining firmly present in the desert. It was all too easy to travel into her subconscious, and believe in the power of the mind as it affects reasoning and rationale. I am still caught up in this meaningful and emotional journey through grief and love. I believe this novel will forever remain a part of me and so it joins our LoveReading Star Books, and sits as one of my personal picks of the month. Remarkable in its simple yet complex beauty, Death Valley is a truly unique novel I can recommend heart and soul.
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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The most profound book yet from the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, a darkly funny novel about grief that becomes a desert survival story.
A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow - for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike.
Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant.
This is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest. This is Death Valley.
Death Valley features in the following genres: General Fiction, Liz Robinson's Picks of the Month, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Magical realism, Fiction, Recommendations, Fantasy, Book Club Recommendations, Star Books, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss, Fiction: narrative themes
Death Valley is available in Paperback, Hardback
Death Valley was written by Melissa Broder and published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Death Valley has 232 pages
£8.99
