The Golden State A Novel Lydia Kiesling by Lydia Kiesling 9780374164836, 0374164835 instant download after payment.

A gorgeous, raw debut novel about a young woman braving the ups & downs of motherhood in a fractured America

In Lydia Kiesling’s razor-sharp debut novel, The Golden State, we accompany Daphne, a young mother on the edge of a breakdown, as she flees her sensible but strained life in San Francisco for the high desert of Altavista with her toddler, Honey. Bucking under the weight of being a single parent―her Turkish husband is unable to return to the United States because of a “processing error”―Daphne takes refuge in a mobile home left to her by her grandparents in hopes that the quiet will bring clarity.

But clarity proves elusive. Over the next ten days Daphne is anxious, she behaves a little erratically, she drinks too much. She wanders the town looking for anyone & anything to punctuate the long hours alone with the baby. Among others, she meets Cindy, a neighbor who is active in a secessionist movement, & befriends the elderly Alice, who has traveled to Altavista as she approaches the end of her life. When her relationships with these women culminate in a dangerous standoff, Daphne must reconcile her inner narrative with the reality of a deeply divided world.

Keenly observed, bristling with humor, & set against the beauty of a little-known part of California, The Golden State is about class & cultural breakdowns, & desperate attempts to bridge old & new worlds. But more than anything, it is about motherhood: its voracious worry, frequent tedium, & enthralling, wondrous love.

Lydia Kiesling's The Golden State, a 2018 National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree, is a finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, & longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker online, & The Cut, among other outlets. She lives in Portland, OR.