Valley of the Moon
Melanie Gideon
Valley of the Moon
Melanie Gideon
The author of the critically acclaimed Wife 22 has written a captivating novel about a love that transcends time perfect for readers of The Time Traveler s Wife, Time and Again, and the novels of Alice Hoffman.
San Francisco, 1975. A single mother, Lux Lysander is overwhelmed, underpaid, and living on the edge of an emotional precipice. When her adored five-year-old son goes away to visit his grandparents, Lux takes a solo trip to Sonoma Valley a chance to both lose herself and find herself again.
Awakened at midnight, Lux steps outside to see a fog settled over the Sonoma landscape. Wandering toward a point of light in the distance, she emerges into a meadow on a sunny day. There she meets a group of people whose sweetly simple clothing, speech, and manners almost make them seem as if they are from another time.
And then she realizes they are.
Lux has stumbled upon an idyllic community cut off not only from the rest of the world but from time itself. The residents of Greengage tell a stunned and disoriented Lux that they ve somehow been marooned in the early twentieth century. Now that she has inexplicably stepped into the past, it is not long before Lux is drawn in by its peace and beauty.
Unlike the people of Greengage, Lux discovers that she is able to come and go. And over the years, Lux finds herself increasingly torn between her two lives. Her beloved son is very much a child of the modern world, but she feels continually pulled back to the only place she has ever truly felt at home.
A gorgeous, original, and deeply moving novel about love and longing and the power that time holds over all of us, Valley of the Moon is unforgettable.
Advance praise for Valley of the Moon
Magical, cinematic … Valley of the Moon is breathlessly romantic and alive with the love of language. Sarah Addison Allen
Praise for The Slippery Year
A love song to her family and to life … One of the happiest books to cross our paths in a very long time.
San Francisco Chronicle
Gideon explores her pain, doubt, regret, and confusion as a wife and mother at midlife with great poise and insight and, ultimately, a gentle aura of hope. Elle
[A] perfect balance of gorgeous writing, quirky wit, and lovable impertinences. Elinor Lipman
Like all the best books, The Slippery Year reminds us that we are not alone… . Truly the one thing wrong with this book is that it had to end. Allison Pearson
The perfect antidote to the everyday blues. Booklist
Praise for Wife 22
Poignant and fresh. People
Playful but incisive. NPR
Delightful … compulsively readable. Gretchen Rubin
I loved it, loved it, loved it. It s so funny and true and sad and real and clever … also so hopeful and wise and ultimately heartwarming. Marian Keyes
Superb … Gideon s work is an honest assessment of a woman s struggle to reconcile herself with her desires and responsibilities… . Fully formed supporting characters and a nuanced emotional story line make Gideon s [novel] shimmer. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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