The Other Valley Audiobook By Scott Alexander Howard cover art

The Other Valley

A Novel

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The Other Valley

By: Scott Alexander Howard
Narrated by: Cindy Kay
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Buy for $19.49

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LONGLISTED FOR CANADA READS 2025 | Shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize

For fans of Emily St. John Mandel, David Mitchell, and Kazuo Ishiguro, an exquisite literary speculative novel set in an unnamed valley, where bereaved residents can petition to cross a forbidden border to see their lost loved ones again.

Sixteen-year-old Odile Ozanne is an awkward, quiet girl, vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decree who among the town’s residents may be escorted deep into the woods, who may cross the border’s barbed wire fence, who may make the arduous trek to descend into the next valley over. It’s the same valley, the same town. But to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it’s twenty years behind. The only border crossings permitted by the Conseil are mourning tours: furtive viewings of the dead in towns where the dead are still alive.

When Odile recognizes two mourners she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her classmate Edme have crossed the border from the future to see their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present. Edme—who is brilliant and funny, and the only person to truly know Odile—is about to die. Sworn to secrecy by the Conseil so as not to disrupt the course of nature, Odile finds herself drawing closer to her doomed friend—imperiling her own future.

Masterful and original, The Other Valley is an affecting modern fable about the inevitable march of time and whether or not fate can be defied. Above all, it is about love and letting go, and the bonds, in both life and death, that never break. Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Time Travel Women's Fiction Funny
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Story was interesting. My only real complaint is the absolutely abhorrent French accent of the narrator!

Kept me interested

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The story stayed with me for weeks after completion. The first half joys and hopes. The second half, Dante's journey. By the end I was hoping for only one outcome. I'm glad I took the journey. For all the science speculation there is a weight of human experience to bear. Yes take the journey.

Exhausting but worth it

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