The Other Valley

<b>Scott Alexander Howard</b> has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto where he wrote an award-winning dissertation on literary emotions and the passage of time. His articles have appeared in journals such as <i>Philosophical Quarterly</i> and <i>Analysis</i>. Upon completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard he decided to pursue fiction. He now lives in Vancouver. <b>'Astonishingly brilliant. My book of the year.' </b><br><b> Liz Nugent <i>Sunday Times</i>-bestselling author of <i>Strange Sally Diamond</i></b><br><b></b><br><b>For fans of Emily St John Mandel and Kazuo Ishiguro an exhilarating literary speculative novel about an isolated town neighboured by its own past and future and a young girl who faces an impossible choice...</b><br><br>Sixteen-year-old Odile Ozanne is an awkward quiet girl but everyone knows she's destined to land a coveted seat on the Conseil. In her apprenticeship she competes to become one of the judges to decide who amongst the town's residents may travel across the border. If she earns the position she'll decree who may be escorted deep into the woods who may cross the border's barbed wire fence who may make the arduous trek over the western mountain range - or perhaps the eastern range-to descend into the next valley over. It's the same valley the same town. However to the east the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west it's twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness. The only border crossings permitted by the Conseil are mourning tours: furtive viewings of the dead in towns where the dead are still alive.<br><br>Odile wise beyond her years will surely pass the Conseil's vetting. But when she happens upon a mourning tour she wasn't supposed to see she realizes her dear friend Edme's parents have crossed the border from the east from twenty years in the future to view their son still alive in Odile's present. Edme who's so funny and light. Edme who's a violin virtuoso at just sixteen. Edme who's the first boy to even see Odile to really like her.... And it's Edme who's going to die. Sworn to secrecy by the Conseil in order to preserve the timeline Odile finds herself drawn even closer to the doomed boy. When Edme dies far sooner than Odile expects when she does nothing to thwart his fate she's deeply shaken. The loss her foreknowledge the weight of her rare and varied grief all throw Odile's own future her adult life into a devastating downward spiral.<br><br>If your soul was stricken by the years your teeth bloodied from all of life's blows would you risk being seen by the armed patrols would you gamble with everyone's lives with your own with the annihilation of an entire timeline to hike across the border and get back to where it all went wrong? <b>A stunning literary debut novel that is a cross between Kazuo Ishiguro's speculative work and the heart-rending search for where it all went wrong in Matt Haig's <i>The Midnight Library</i>.</b> <b>Astonishingly brilliant. My book of the year</b><br><b></b><br><b></b> <b>A stellar debut full of heartbreak and hope </b>wrapped up in gorgeous prose. Scott Alexander Howard is one to watch <b>Part Ishiguro part Amis and somehow all its own</b> <i>The Other Valley</i> marks the debut of a phenomenally talented writer. Pay attention <i>The Other Valley</i> is a complex and elegiac exploration of humanity and our relationship with time. Told through tender and thoughtful prose Howard's novel leaves you wondering about the choices you've made in your life and whether you'd do them differently if you had the chance. It is a tale of loss of hope and of possibility. <b>It is a book that will stay with you if not for its questions about fate and consequence then for its quiet and moving depiction of love and grief. I loved it.</b> Brilliantly conceived. The voice is accomplished and nuanced and the story is<b> a page-turner with a blistering climax. An astonishing debut</b> <b>What a stunning debut. This coming-of-age story is filled to the brim with heart and hope</b> and Howard's prose is simply breathtaking. <i>The Other Valley</i> is a brilliant take on time travel and a thought-provoking exploration of the boundaries between fate and choice. <b>Make room on your shelves folks this book is going to knock your socks off</b>. <b>Thoughtful touching and beautiful</b> <i>The Other Valley</i> is an accomplished and exquisitely crafted novel. Scott Alexander Howard takes readers into a unique world they are sure to remember and introduces them to Odile a fascinating character with an unenviable dilemma '<b>A breathtaking meditation on grief and the fluidity of time</b> told in elegant precise prose and which speeds to an audacious ending In <i>The Other Valley</i> Scott Alexander Howard takes an ingenious conceit and wraps it in a story of teenage love to explore eternal questions about second chances and predestination. <b>Howard's novel is sensitively written propulsively plotted and unforgettable</b> <i>The Other Valley</i> is <b>as riveting as it is philosophically beautiful</b>. Scott Alexander Howard asks us to imagine how we might live if our older and younger selves weren't lost to us but waited for us somewhere. While the premise is uniquely speculative the sensation of being stranded between the ambitious optimism of youth and the clouded uncertainty of the future is gorgeously familiar. Powerful and atmospheric <b>Howard's novel is one I hope to reread at different stages of my life</b> <i>The Other Valley </i>comprises three novels all of them equally <b>enthralling</b>. It is a satisfyingly-detailed philosophical thought experiment;<b> a moving intensely-poignant love story and a masterful slow-burning suspense novel</b>. It lingers in the mind in the best way and <b>sits comfortably beside Ishiguro Ted Chiang and Murakami</b> on an ideal bookshelf.<i></i> <b>A deeply moving ultimately thrilling story about memory love and regret</b> <b>Astonishingly brilliant. My book of the year</b><br><b></b><br><b></b> <b>A stellar debut full of heartbreak and hope </b>wrapped up in gorgeous prose. Scott Alexander Howard is one to watch <b>Part Ishiguro part Amis and somehow all its own</b> <i>The Other Valley</i> marks the debut of a phenomenally talented writer. Pay attention <i>The Other Valley</i> is a complex and elegiac exploration of humanity and our relationship with time. Told through tender and thoughtful prose Howard's novel leaves you wondering about the choices you've made in your life and whether you'd do them differently if you had the chance. It is a tale of loss of hope and of possibility. <b>It is a book that will stay with you if not for its questions about fate and consequence then for its quiet and moving depiction of love and grief. I loved it.</b> Brilliantly conceived. The voice is accomplished and nuanced and the story is<b> a page-turner with a blistering climax. An astonishing debut</b> <b>What a stunning debut. This coming-of-age story is filled to the brim with heart and hope</b> and Howard's prose is simply breathtaking. <i>The Other Valley</i> is a brilliant take on time travel and a thought-provoking exploration of the boundaries between fate and choice. <b>Make room on your shelves folks this book is going to knock your socks off</b>. <b>Thoughtful touching and beautiful</b> <i>The Other Valley</i> is an accomplished and exquisitely crafted novel. Scott Alexander Howard takes readers into a unique world they are sure to remember and introduces them to Odile a fascinating character with an unenviable dilemma '<b>A breathtaking meditation on grief and the fluidity of time</b> told in elegant precise prose and which speeds to an audacious ending In <i>The Other Valley</i> Scott Alexander Howard takes an ingenious conceit and wraps it in a story of teenage love to explore eternal questions about second chances and predestination. <b>Howard's novel is sensitively written propulsively plotted and unforgettable</b> <i>The Other Valley</i> is <b>as riveting as it is philosophically beautiful</b>. Scott Alexander Howard asks us to imagine how we might live if our older and younger selves weren't lost to us but waited for us somewhere. While the premise is uniquely speculative the sensation of being stranded between the ambitious optimism of youth and the clouded uncertainty of the future is gorgeously familiar. Powerful and atmospheric <b>Howard's novel is one I hope to reread at different stages of my life</b> <i>The Other Valley </i>comprises three novels all of them equally <b>enthralling</b>. It is a satisfyingly-detailed philosophical thought experiment;<b> a moving intensely-poignant love story and a masterful slow-burning suspense novel</b>. It lingers in the mind in the best way and <b>sits comfortably beside Ishiguro Ted Chiang and Murakami</b> on an ideal bookshelf.<i></i>