Death Valley -- Melissa Broder, Hardcover

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.

In Melissa Broder's astounding 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, 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.

Author: Melissa Broder
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 10/03/2023
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.60w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781668024843

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 05/01/2023 pg. 13
Publishers Weekly 07/03/2023
Library Journal 07/01/2023 pg. 62
Kirkus Reviews 08/15/2023
Booklist 09/01/2023 pg. 38

About the Author
Melissa Broder is the author of the novels Milk Fed and The Pisces, the essay collection So Sad Today, and five poetry collections, including Superdoom. She has written for The New York Times, Elle, and New York magazine's The Cut. She lives in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter @SoSadToday and @MelissaBroder and Instagram @RealMelissaBroder.