by Katherine Taylor
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jun 2015
304 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Ingrid Palamede never returns to the places she's lived. For her, "whole neighborhoods, whole cities, can be ruined by the reasons you left." But when a breakup leaves her heartbroken and homeless, she's forced to return to her childhood home of Fresno, California. Back in the real wine country, where grapes are grown for mass producers, Ingrid must confront her aging parents and their financial woes, soured friendships, and the blissfully bad decisions she made in her past. But along the way she unearths her love for the land, her talent for harvesting grapes, and a deep fondness for and forgiveness of the very first place she ever left.
With all the sharp-tongued wit of her first novel, Rules for Saying Goodbye, Katherine Taylor examines high-class small-town life among the grapes-on the vine or soaked in vodka-in Valley Fever, a blisteringly funny, ferociously intelligent, and deeply moving novel of self-discovery.
"A breezy family saga, this story is also an ode to the decline of the valleys of California, with all their rustic beauty and hazy disenchantment." - Publishers Weekly
"This story is rich with sensory details. Readers can feel the heat and humidity of the California summer. Taylor brings the scent of the harvest to the table with wonderful descriptions of meals that include grapes, figs, pistachios, almonds, and wine. This is a novel to lose yourself in." - Library Journal
"A profound novel about forces that can nurture or break the strongest connections." - Kirkus
This information about Valley Fever was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Katherine Taylor is the author of Rules for Saying Goodbye. She lives in Los Angeles.
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