by Ivy Pochoda
NPR Best Book of 2017
Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Pick
Refinery29 Best Book of the Year
BOLO Books Top Read of 2017
“Destined to be a classic L.A. novel.”—Michael Connelly
When a teen runs away from his father’s mysterious commune, he sets in motion a domino effect that will connect six characters desperate for hope and love, set across the sun-bleached canvas of Los Angeles.
From the acclaimed author of Visitation Street, a visionary portrait of contemporary Los Angeles in all its facets, from the Mojave Desert to the Pacific, from the 110 to Skid Row.
During a typically crowded morning commute, a naked runner is dodging between the stalled cars. The strange sight makes the local news and captures the imaginations of a stunning cast of misfits and lost souls.
There's Ren, just out of juvie, who travels to LA in search of his mother. There's Owen and James, teenage twins who live in a desert commune, where their father, a self-proclaimed healer, holds a powerful sway over his disciples. There's Britt, who shows up at the commune harboring a dark secret. There's Tony, a bored and unhappy lawyer who is inspired by the runner. And there's Blake, a drifter hiding in the desert, doing his best to fight off his most violent instincts. Their lives will all intertwine and come crashing together in a shocking way, one that could only happen in this enchanting, dangerous city.
Wonder Valley is a swirling mix of angst, violence, heartache, and yearning—a masterpiece by a writer on the rise.
NPR Best Book of 2017
Los Angeles Times Best Fiction Pick
Refinery29 Best Book of the Year
BOLO Books Top Read of 2017
“Destined to be a classic L.A. novel.”—Michael Connelly
When a teen runs away from his father’s mysterious commune, he sets in motion a domino effect that will connect six characters desperate for hope and love, set across the sun-bleached canvas of Los Angeles.
From the acclaimed author of Visitation Street, a visionary portrait of contemporary Los Angeles in all its facets, from the Mojave Desert to the Pacific, from the 110 to Skid Row.
During a typically crowded morning commute, a naked runner is dodging between the stalled cars. The strange sight makes the local news and captures the imaginations of a stunning cast of misfits and lost souls.
There's Ren, just out of juvie, who travels to LA in search of his mother. There's Owen and James, teenage twins who live in a desert commune, where their father, a self-proclaimed healer, holds a powerful sway over his disciples. There's Britt, who shows up at the commune harboring a dark secret. There's Tony, a bored and unhappy lawyer who is inspired by the runner. And there's Blake, a drifter hiding in the desert, doing his best to fight off his most violent instincts. Their lives will all intertwine and come crashing together in a shocking way, one that could only happen in this enchanting, dangerous city.
Wonder Valley is a swirling mix of angst, violence, heartache, and yearning—a masterpiece by a writer on the rise.
Reviews-
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September 18, 2017
Pochoda’s third novel (after Visitation Street) uses a 2010 traffic jam as the springboard for an exploration of the rootless existence of marginal SoCal lives. Stuck in traffic, Tony, a married lawyer, spots a naked man streaking between cars and becomes obsessed with finding out who he is. Readers also meet Ren, a young man just out of juvie in Brooklyn who has come to L.A. to reconnect with his absent mother, who is living in Skid Row, and Blake, a drifter searching for the woman who killed his traveling companion several years ago. The novel then jumps back to 2006, when Britt, a young tennis player running from a tragic mistake, ends up at a ranch in Twentynine Palms presided over by a charismatic healer. There, Britt becomes involved with the healer’s teenaged twin sons, who go on to two different destinies. Toggling back and forth, the narrative eventually shows how events in the past affect the present, then brings the characters together as each enacts one last desperate attempt at self-salvation. Pochada has written a novel alive with empathy for the dispossessed and detailed descriptions of the California landscape, with a little of the film Crash thrown in. But as sympathetic as the characters are, their stories fail to come together as a dramatic whole. -
October 1, 2017
A young man runs naked down the freeways and streets of Los Angeles, clogging up morning traffic, to the consternation of most commuting Angelenos. This young man, unnamed in the prologue, ties together all of the characters in Pochoda's (Visitation Street, 2013) ambitious, absorbing third novel. In 2006, a young woman, Britt, escapes a tragic accident and heads to a commune in the Mojave Desert, where a charismatic leader holds sway over a group of young interns. His twin sons, James and Owen, vie for his attention, but after Owen angers his father, he runs away and comes across two dangerous men, Blake and Sam. The pair is on the run from the law, but an injury Sam sustained on the road is slowing them down. In 2010, Ren, recently released from juvie, is searching for his mother on the streets of skid row. Pochoda paints southern California with a vibrant brush, rendering an evocative landscape on which her desperate characters seek out redemption and rejuvenation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.) -
September 15, 2017
During 2006-10, a disparate cast of characters converges in the streets of Los Angeles and the desert outside the city. This is not the glamorous L.A. of Hollywood, palm trees, and swimming pools. Instead, we follow a young man recently released from juvenile detention in search of his mother who has become homeless; a dubious spiritual leader, his family, and a collection of college-age "interns" inhabiting a communal chicken farm; a pair of criminals on the lam; and a corporate lawyer having an existential crisis. All are connected to a bizarre incident on the freeway in ways that are not apparent until at least 70 pages in, with the nonlinear time line and lack of a central character making it somewhat challenging to get a grasp of the story and its forward momentum. VERDICT Despite the initial confusion, Pochoda (Visitation Sheet) takes readers places they don't often see with authenticity and clarity. Her description of the daily lives of the urban homeless is particularly vivid and sympathetic. Each of the main characters does achieve some sort of peace or resolution by the dark and often violent book's end. [See Prepub Alert, 5/15/17.]--Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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June 1, 2017
After 2013's Visitation Street, feelingly based in blue-collar Red Hook, Brooklyn, Pochoda moves to Los Angeles, where a runner fleetly navigating a monstrous traffic jam manages to redirect the lives of characters from twins Owen and James, whose father presides mightily over a desert commune, to the dangerous drifter hiding nearby. With a 75,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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People, Book of the Week
"Incandescent... Pochoda keeps you guessing while bringing these lost souls wonderfully, intensely alive." — People, Book of the Week
"A dizzying, kaleidoscopic thriller that refuses to let readers look away from the dark side of Southern California. . . . Impossible to put down. . . . It's the memorable characters and beautiful prose that make the novel so successful. . . . Unexpected and pitch-perfect." — Los Angeles Times
"Audacious. . . . Each character is realized with vivid empathy. . . . A richly Californian novel, drenched in enough sunlight to illuminate the harshest of truths." — Entertainment Weekly
"Enthralling. . . . A compassionate look at the displaced that treats each with respect and humanity." — Associated Press
"Pochoda's steady hand and sharp eye keep all of her characters moving swiftly and gracefully through the variegated L.A. landscape." — LitHub
"Pochoda is a masterful storyteller. . . . [She's] come up with a harmonious narrative that showcases the human condition, full of ecstasy, angst, rage, and beauty." — Nylon Magazine
"Pochoda is a master. . . . It's not a far stretch to consider Pochoda to be in company of James Ellroy, Michael Connelly and T. Jefferson Parker. . . . It wouldn't be a big surprise to find Wonder Valley on the short list for several awards." — BookPage
"Evoked by Pochoda in shimmering detail. . . . Absorbing, finely detailed, nasty California noir." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Pochoda has written a novel alive with empathy for the dispossessed and detailed description of the California landscape." — Publishers Weekly
"Ambitious, absorbing. . . . Pochoda paints southern California with a vibrant brush, rendering an evocative landscape on which her desperate characters seek out redemption and rejuvenation." — Booklist
"Pochoda takes readers places they don't often see with authenticity and clarity. . . . Vivid and sympathetic." — Library Journal
"Wonder Valley seethes with the vivid, searching idea of southern California. But as the intersecting journeys of hippie acolytes, restless hoods, lost boys and all manner of runaways converge, Pochoda enacts an aching dream of home that will possess and haunt you." — Smith Henderson, author of Fourth of July Creek
"Wonder Valley is destined to be a classic L.A. novel. From desert scrub to cold blue sea, it carries an eloquent yet hard-edge take on the contradictions of a place so difficult to define. It's impossible to put down." — Michael Connelly, author of The Wrong Side of Goodbye
"A vision of Southern California that is at once panoramic and intimate. . . . This novel paints an unforgettable portrait of people who long, above all else, for community and connection." — Edan Lepucki, author of California
