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Death Valley
- Narrated by: Melissa Broder
- Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins
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Death Valley
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Summary
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.
Critic 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)
Vulnerable, witty, trippy and conceptually dazzling all at once (Kimberly King Parsons, author of BLACK LIGHT)
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What listeners say about Death Valley
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Emma456
- 12-04-24
A surreal and lyrical journey
Brilliantly read. I love everything Melissa writes and this was as thought provoking, strange and wonderful as I hoped it would be.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Liz
- 07-01-24
Fabulously odd
Really enjoyed this book - it's not perfect, but still a bright fun thing. will definitely seek out more from the author
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Eleanor Harwood Todd
- 05-11-23
Utterly absurd and brilliant
I had this preordered for months and it didn’t disappoint. The narrative of a woman lost in the desert interwoven with the fear of loss was so well executed, and took the theme of bereavement to a new place.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- hp
- 15-12-23
Hot desert on desert action.
Funny, relatable, profoundish (and no other descriptive words but at least past the minimum of fifteen).
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 18-02-24
Repetitive mess
I gave up listening. Uninspired and quite frankly boring. It has potential but is painfully predictable and repetitive. I don’t need to hear “my father the baby” or “my father the teen” ever again, lest I tear my hair out.
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