Broder, Melissa – The Bell Bookshop

Death Valley

Emma — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

‘Riotously original … A triumph’ NEW YORK TIMES

‘A journey unlike any you’ve read before‘ NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH

‘Her most profound book yet … Surreal, hysterical and beguiling in every sense‘ GLAMOUR

The most profound book yet from the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, a darkly funny novel about grief that becomes a desert survival story.

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.

This is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest. This is Death Valley.

PRAISE FOR THE PISCES

‘Of all the books that I read this summer I think this was my absolute favourite. It really blew me away’ DOLLY ALDERTON
‘Frank, provocative and brilliant’ INDEPENDENT
‘Hilarious, poignant, sexy. A brilliant story about why we crave connection and how to find ourselves’ ELLE
‘Laugh-out-loud funny’ i

Death Valley

Emma — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

‘Riotously original … A triumph’ New York Times‘A journey unlike any you’ve read before‘ Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars‘Her most profound book yet … Surreal, hysterical and beguiling in every sense‘GLAMOURThe most profound book yet from the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, a darkly funny novel about grief that becomes a desert survival story.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.This is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest. This is Death Valley.PRAISE FOR THE PISCES‘Of all the books that I read this summer I think this was my absolute favourite. It really blew me away’ DOLLY ALDERTON‘Frank, provocative and brilliant’ INDEPENDENT‘Hilarious, poignant, sexy. A brilliant story about why we crave connection and how to find ourselves’ ELLE‘Laugh-out-loud funny’ i

Milk Fed

Emma — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A scathingly funny, wildly erotic and fiercely imaginative story about food, sex and god from the Women’s Prize longlisted author of The Pisces A STYLIST, INDEPENDENT, THE WEEK AND RED HIGHLIGHT FOR 2021 ‘Sexy and fun and a little weird … This riot of carnal pleasure will make you laugh as well as gasp’ The Times‘A revelation … Melissa Broder has produced one of the strangest and sexiest novels of the new year … Exhilarating‘ Entertainment Weekly‘A luscious, heartbreaking story of self-discovery through the relentless pursuit of desire. I couldn’t get enough of this devastating and extremely sexy book’ Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other PartiesRachel is twenty-four, a lapsed Jew who has made calorie restriction her religion. By day, she maintains an illusion of control by way of obsessive food rituals. At night, she pedals nowhere on the elliptical machine. Then Rachel meets Miriam, a young Orthodox Jewish woman intent upon feeding her. Rachel is suddenly and powerfully entranced by Miriam – by her sundaes and her body, her faith and her family – and as the two grow closer, Rachel embarks on a journey marked by mirrors, mysticism, mothers, milk, and honey.Pairing superlative emotional insight with unabashed vivid fantasy, Melissa Broder tells a tale of appetites: of physical hunger, of sexual desire, of spiritual longing. Milk Fed is a tender and riotously funny meditation on love, certitude, and the question of what we are all being fed, from one of our major writers on the psyche – both sacred and profane.