The Desert Sky Before Us: A Novel

by Anne Valente, Cassandra Campbell (Read by)

Overview

"The Desert Sky Before Us is a marvel. A vital, profound story of the aftermath of loss, and of the terrors and illuminations of love." —R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries

From award-winning author Anne Valente comes this poignant and unforgettable literary novel of two estranged sisters—one, a former racecar driver and the other a recently-released prisoner—who embark on a road trip together to complete the scavenger hunt their mother designed for them before her death.

When Billie is released from a correctional facility in Decatur, her sister Rhiannon is there to meet her, even though the two haven’t seen each other in months. Painful secrets and numerous unspoken betrayals linger between them—but most agonizing is the sudden passing of their mother, a renowned paleontologist.

Rhiannon and Billie must overcome their differences as they set off on a road trip west, following the breadcrumb-trail of their late mother’s scavenger hunt, a sort of second funeral she planned in her final days. The sisters know the trail will end in Utah at the famous Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, where their mother spent her career researching dinosaur fossils. But the seemingly endless days on the road soon take their toll, forcing Rhiannon and Billie to confront their hostilities and revisit old memories—both good and bad.

As they travel across the heart of America, and as a series of plane crashes in the news make their journey all the more urgent, the two sisters begin to rediscover each other and to uncover their late mother’s veiled second life, taking them on an unexpected emotional journey inward—and forcing them to come to terms with their own choices in life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982656607
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Original bio sent from Cassandra:

Cassandra Campbell began doing voice overs as the voice for Calvin Klein’s Italian commercials. This was followed by commercial and documentary recording in both English and Italian. She has recorded many audiobooks and has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards as well as an Audie® Award nomination. As an actress and director, she has worked at the Public, the Mint, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stagewest, Theatreworks, the Baltimore Shakespeare Festival, Millmountain Theatre, the National Shakespeare Company, and the New York Fringe Festival.

Anne Valente’s first short-story collection, By Light We Knew Our Names, won the Dzanc Books Short Story Prize. Her fiction appears in One Story, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, and the Chicago Tribune, and her essays appear in The Believer and the Washington Post. Originally from St. Louis, she teaches creative writing and literature at Hamilton College.

Editorial Reviews

03/25/2019

Valente’s latest (after Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down) misses the mark. Three months after their mother’s death, Rhiannon Hurst, a former Nascar driver, picks up her sister, Billie, at the prison she is being released from after serving a six-year stretch for arson, to drive them to a second funeral service pre-arranged by their late paleontologist mother, Margaret. Margaret also left behind a journal of geographic coordinates indicating stops that Rhiannon and Billie are meant to visit on the drive from the prison to the funeral. The sisters soon discover that each stop contains a clue in the form of an item of personal significance hidden by their mother for them to discover. On the two-week trip from Illinois to a dinosaur fossil quarry in Utah, Rhiannon and Billie rehash old hostilities and regrets while simultaneously excavating their mother’s motivations for the scavenger hunt. Hovering in the background is the inexplicable phenomenon of airplanes falling from the skies. As in her previous novel, Valente once again prominently features arson and documents inserted into the text—in this case, excerpts from scholarly disquisitions on, among other subjects, stegosauruses’ plates, Nascar champion Wendell Scott, and red-tailed hawks. But here, narrative idiosyncrasies have calcified into lackluster stylistic tics. The result is an overlong combination of road trip story and puzzle box that leaves its two main characters stranded. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Breathtaking...Riveting characters...This reader found herself increasingly spellbound by this remarkable and urgent debut novel.

Laura van den Berg

One of the most compelling novles I’ve read in years.

Matt Bell

Pulsing, eerie, and impossible to put down...In a cultural moment in which mass violence is shockingly prevalent, Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down is that rare gift; a book that is as resonant as it is surprising, as timely as it is soulful.

Chloe Benjamin

Valente is a sorceress...This is a gorgeous book full of mysteries. It scorches with truth, and sings with hope. Valente writes like all of our lives depend on it.

Diane Cook

Lyrical, mysterious, and structurally innovative...This is a book we need now more than ever.

Kelly Luce

Praise for Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down: “Valente’s beautiful, elegiac novel about a community in mourning, and the unseen forces that unravel and consume us after a tragedy, is a work of heartbreaking timeliness.

J. Ryan Stradal

“The Desert Sky Before Us is a marvel... [Billie and Rhiannon’s] once-in-a-lifetime journey together stayed with me long after I turned the last page of this captivating book.

Mia Alvar

Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down is a beautifully written, lyrical book wrapped up in a compelling mystery with shades of Stephen King. Gripping and profound, a terrific debut.

Kate Hamer

Gripping, visceral...I couldn’t stop reading—or caring about these characters...There’s a tinge of mythic eeriness to this story...but it was the resilient, appealing characters who propelled me through this intense novel, and lingered long after its close.

Sharon Guskin

The Desert Sky Before Us... is a rich, ambitious novel, and Anne Valente is a dazzling talent.

Clare Beams

The Desert Sky Before Us is a marvel. A vital, profound story of the aftermath of loss, and of the terrors and illuminations of love.”

R.O. Kwon

This is a big-hearted novel.... The Desert Sky Before Us is a wonderful book—surprising, lyric, and utterly compelling.

Tessa Fontaine