Death Valley

This novel about a grieving woman artfully intersects with humor. Retreating from Los Angeles, the main character ends up fleeing to Death Valley to seek solace from the looming death of her father and the weight of her husband’s crumbling health. While hiking in the desert one day, she comes upon a cactus that holds a portal—perhaps to another world, or perhaps to a surreal hallucination in her mind. Death Valley, paperback, 256 pages, Scribner, 8″x 5½”: $17.99