'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 ' GLAMOUR 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 . PRAISE FOR THE PISCES 'Of all the books
that I read this summer I think this was my absolute favourite. It really blew me away' DOLLY
ALDERTON 'Frank provocative and brilliant' INDEPENDENT 'Hilarious poignant sexy. A
brilliant story about why we crave connection and how to find ourselves' ELLE 'Laugh-out-loud
funny' i
