The Other Valley: A Novel

By: Scott Alexander Howard

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Synopsis: *Soon to be a TV series* Jimmy Fallon&’s Book Club Top Four Pick and a PBS Book Club Pick For fans of Kazuo Ishiguro and Emily St. John Mandel, this &“mind-bending take on time travel&” (The New York Times) is about an isolated town neighbored by its own past and future, and a young girl who spots two elderly visitors from across the border: the grieving parents of the boy she loves.Sixteen-year-old Odile vies for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she&’ll decide who may cross her town&’s heavily guarded borders. 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. When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn&’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he&’s still alive in Odile&’s present. Edme—who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly know Odile—is going to die. Sworn to secrecy to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil&’s top candidate. Yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, jeopardizing her entire future. The Other Valley is &“thought-provoking exploration of ethics, power, love, and time travel&” (Kirkus Reviews).