“Incandescent…ecstatically awake to the world’s astonishments…Death Valley is a triumph, a ribald prayer for sensuality and grace in the face of profound loss, a hilarious revolt against the aggressive godlessness, dehumanization, and fear plaguing our time. All ten of Melissa Broder’s finger lamps are blazing. Why not be totally changed into fire.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“One of the best books I’ve read in years: funny, brilliant, gutting, and easily devoured over the course of one blissful afternoon.”
–ELLE
“Extremely funny and deeply felt.”
—People
“Sardonic, self-implicating prose that cuts to the bone is Broder’s specialty, and Death Valley is probably the funniest book you’ll ever read about getting lost and almost dying.”
—THE CUT
“A witty, psychedelic exploration of grief…riotously funny.”
—The Guardian
“A hilarious and hallucinatory journey into the badlands of California…Like grief itself, this book is at once surreal, absurd, lucid, and wise; it will change you.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine, Best Books of 2023
“Broder takes her absurdist humor to new heights as she spins a surrealist tale of emptiness, exploration, and existential crisis in the California desert.”
—W Magazine
“Broder’s gift is for scenes and dialogue that are so natural–in that they reflect the ridiculousness and surrealism of real life–that they tip over into the uncanny. She is also very funny.”
—Los Angeles Times
“Broder is a comedic writer, a poet averse to stale language and an online personality tirelessly manning a churn of new quips on the familiar subject of sadness.”
—The Washington Post
“Infectious and dreamy…Broder’s narrator is consistently companionable…Readers ought not to miss this magical tale of survival.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“As wise in its way as any spiritualism about vision quests or finding enlightenment…A 100 percent Broder take on grief and empathy: embodied but cerebral, hilarious but heart-wrenching.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“An exhilarating meditation on death, life, survival, and how we rely on stories to get us through it all. It’s a triumph for Broder.”
—BookPage (starred review)
“A surrealist story about anticipatory grief that is as wryly funny as it is moving…unforgettable.”
—Nylon
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