LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
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.
Liz Robinson
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Death Valley Synopsis
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.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781526665225 |
| Publication date: |
1st August 2024 |
| Author: |
Melissa Broder |
| Publisher: |
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
232 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Modern and Contemporary Fiction
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| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Press Reviews
Melissa Broder Press Reviews
I've never read a novel that portrays grief quite like Death Valley. Somehow, Melissa Broder captures both the punishing ordinariness of loss while also showing us how extraordinary it is to have been here at all - and to love each other besides. There is deep wisdom in these pages, and I know I'll be thinking about this book for a long time -- Mary Beth Keane, author of ASK AGAIN, YES
A journey unlike any you've read before. Death Valley by Melissa Broder is a beautifully wild leap into the mysterious desert that is grief -- Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS and FRIDAY BLACK
Author
About Melissa Broder
Melissa Broder is the author of the essay collection So Sad Today and four poetry collections, including Last Sext. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize for poetry, she also writes the 'So Sad Today' column at Vice, the astrology column for Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter and the 'Beauty and Death' column on Elle.com. She lives in Los Angeles. melissabroder.com / @melissabroder / @sosadtoday
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