Death Valley A Novel
Death Valley A Novel by Melissa Broder, published by Simon and Schuster on October 3, 2023, is a 240-page work that delves into themes of grief and survival. The narrative follows a woman who seeks solace at a Best Western in the California high desert, attempting to escape the sorrow surrounding her father’s illness and her husband’s deteriorating health. Instead of finding peace, she embarks on an unexpected journey after discovering a mystical cactus during a hike, which leads her into a surreal experience.
Readers will find a blend of humor and literary depth as the story unfolds, exploring the complexities of loss and the search for meaning. The novel incorporates elements of magical realism, inviting readers to engage with its imaginative landscape. Broder’s writing offers a unique perspective on personal struggles, making Death Valley a thought-provoking exploration of the human experience.
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Named a Best Book of 2023 by The New York Times (“incandescent…hilarious…a triumph”), Oprah Daily (“surreal, absurd, lucid, and wise”), Vanity Fair (“Broder [is] a genius and a sorceress”), and more!
From the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, a darkly funny novel about grief and a “magical tale of survival” (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
In Melissa Broder’s astonishingly profound new novel, 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 discovered on a nearby hike.
Out along the sun-scorched trail, the narrator 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.
Death Valley is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest, and is “a journey unlike any you’ve read before” (Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Friday Black).
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