Miller's Valley

In the vein of Anne Tyler's A Spool of Blue Thread and Elizabeth Strout's My Name is Lucy Barton, Miller's Valley is an emotionally powerful story about a family you will never forget. In a small town on the verge of big change, a young woman unearths deep secrets about her family and unexpected truths about herself. For generations the Millers have lived in Miller Valley, a small American town on the verge of enormous change. Mimi Miller describes her life, from the 1960s to the present, with intimacy and honesty, as though revealing it to the best friend she never had. As Mimi eavesdrops on her parents and quietly observes the people around her, she discovers more and more about the toxicity of family secrets, the dangers of gossip, the flaws of marriage, the inequalities of friendship, the risks of passion, loyalty and love. Home, as Mimi begins to realise, can be a place where it's just as easy to feel lost as it is to feel contented. A masterly study of family, memory and loss, Miller's Valley reminds us that the place where you grew up can disappear, and the people in it too, but all will live on in your heart forever. 'Mesmerizing . . . Quindlen makes her characters so richly alive, so believable, that it's impossible not to feel every doubt and dream they harbor . . . the novel is overwhelmingly moving . . . ' New York Times