Death Valley

KeynoteFrom the Women’s Prizelonglistedauthor of The Pisces and Milk Fed, a comic novelabout grief and survival in the California desertDescription‘Riotously original ... A triumph’ NEW YORK TIMES‘A journey unlike any you've read before’ NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH‘Her most profound book yet ... Surreal, hysterical and beguiling in every sense’GLAMOURThe most profound book yet from the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, adarkly funny novel about grief that becomes a desert survival story.

A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness thatplagues 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 themotel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist whorecommends a nearby hike.

Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size andshape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash throughits side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it.

What awaits her inside thismystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious andpoignant.This is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest. This is DeathValley.

PRAISE FOR THE PISCES'Of all the books that I read this summer I think this was my absolute favourite. It reallyblew me away' DOLLY ALDERTON'Frank, provocative and brilliant' INDEPENDENT'Hilarious, poignant, sexy.