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Melissa Broder, author of Death Valley

A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow --- for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike. Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant.

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Week of May 6, 2024

Paperback releases for the week of May 6th include THE BREAKAWAY by Jennifer Weiner, a warmhearted and empowering novel about love, family, friendship, secrets and a life-changing journey; THE GUEST, a stunning novel from Emma Cline in which a young woman pretends to be someone she isn’t; Megan Abbott's BEWARE THE WOMAN, a harrowing psychological thriller that offers a nightmarish glimpse at every pregnant woman’s fears about their vulnerabilities; LITTLE MONSTERS by Adrienne Brodeur, a riveting novel about Cape Cod, complicated families and long-buried secrets; Angie Kim's HAPPINESS FALLS, an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another; and CAMERA GIRL by Carl Sferrazza Anthony, an illuminating biography of the young Jackie Bouvier Kennedy that covers her formative adventures abroad in Paris; her life as a writer and photographer at a Washington, DC, newspaper; and her romance with a dashing, charismatic Massachusetts congressman who shared her intellectual passion.

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