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In this captivating novel from the author of Wife 22, a woman who feels lost in her own time stumbles across a California community that has, impossibly, been marooned in the early twentieth century—perfect for readers of The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Confessions of Max Tivoli.
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 is away visiting 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 feel like they are from another time…
And then she realizes they are.
She 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. Having 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.
Reviews
“Valley of the Moon is the literary equivalent of a farm-to-table delicacy: lovingly handcrafted, delectable and transcendent, becoming more than just a tasty appetizer but a full-course experience of love and time and all the mystical beauty that the region has to offer.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“A propulsive and at times deeply suspenseful novel . . . offers(s) powerful and perceptive considerations about the passage of time, the shape of our lives and the often unintended effects our actions have on the people and communities around us.”
—Book Reporter
“A wonderful story about belonging, love and the aching certainty that there’s something more out there.”
—Shelf Awareness Starred Review
A Barnes & Noble Top Ten Fiction pick . . . “A startling, richly detailed time-travel romp.”
“A captivating story of two worlds so removed from each other in time, yet similar in so many ways.”
—Booklist
“A tale of old-time charm and contemporary agita . . . a magic carpet ride.”
—Kirkus
“Magical, cinematic . . . breathlessly romantic.”
—Sarah Addison Allen