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Published Jul 2018
320 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
How far would you got to find the place you belong?
Hannah is finally about to have everything she ever wanted. With a high-paying job, a Manhattan apartment, and a boyfriend about to propose, all she and Ethan have to do is make it through the last couple of weeks of grad school.
But when, on a romantic weekend trip to Sonoma, Hannah is spontaneously offered a marketing job at a family-run winery and doesn't immediately refuse, their meticulously planned forever threatens to come crashing down. And then Hannah impulsively does the unthinkable - she takes a leap of faith.
Abandoning your dream job and life shouldn't feel this good. But this new reality certainly seems like a dream come true - a picturesque cottage overlooking a vineyard; new friends with their own inspiring plans; and William, the handsome son of the winery owners who captures Hannah's heart only to leave for the very city she let go.
Soon, the mission to rescue the failing winery becomes a mission to rescue Hannah from the life she thought she wanted. Crackling with humor and heart, The Shortest Way Home is the journey of one woman shedding expectations in order to claim her own happy ending.
"Rewarding... The refreshing ending is the perfect capper to this accomplished debut." - Publishers Weekly
"There is never the slightest danger of everything not working out perfectly, and these people are nowhere near interesting enough to have a whole book written about them. Sweet and safe." - Kirkus
"Just purely delightful and as smooth to knock back as a glass of rosé on a sticky summer day ... Refreshing and bright, with a clean, crisp aftertaste." - Nylon
"It's nearly impossible to describe this wonderful debut without summoning the language of wine country because Miriam Parker has infused every page with an appreciation for the alchemy of character and place that can transform a cluster of grapes into a beautiful glass of wine." - Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, author of The Nest
"Miriam Parker's delightful novel The Shortest Way Home reminded me of why I love champagne: it's effervescent, heady and intoxicating. She skillfully blends a captivating romance with inside oenophile references; the writing blew me away." - Elin Hilderbrand, author of Here's to Us
"The Shortest Way Home is about love, life, and the sometimes unpredictable ways we find our place in the world. But it's also about wine, and maybe best described as one might a great wine: the perfect balance of spice and sweetness, satisfyingly complex yet utterly refreshing." - Rumaan Alam, author of Rich and Pretty
"At the end of a stressful day, some of us like to escape with a fine glass of wine; others prefer to sink into a rich, deeply engrossing, heartfelt novel. If both of these are your pleasure—this is the book for you. Savor it." - Camille Perri, author of The Assistants and When Katie Met Cassidy
This information about The Shortest Way Home 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.
Miriam Parker has worked in book publishing for more than seventeen years, and is currently the Associate Publisher of Ecco. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from UNC Wilmington and a BA in English from Columbia University. Her short stories have been published in The Florida Review and Fourteen Hills. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her spaniel, Leopold Bloom. The Shortest Way Home is her first novel.
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