Author: Scott Alexander Howard
Reviewed by Chloe Fuksa
I decided for this month to focus on recent debut releases, and I am so very glad I didn’t pass over this one. The Other Valley is a science fiction novel from author Scott Alexander Howard with an intriguing concept: each valley is identical, but to the east, the townspeople are 20 years in the future, and to the west, 20 years in the past. This book certainly won’t be everybody’s cup of tea – for one thing, there are no quotations for dialogue – but I found it to be so different from anything else I’ve read in a while.
The main character is Odile, and we start by seeing her as a 16-year-old student who is being vetted to join the Conseil. A seat on it would mean she helps decide who is allowed to cross the town’s borders. For example, can a dying elderly man visit to the east to see his first grandchild, or is the trip too risky? One day though, Odile accidently sees the parents of her first love on a visit – meaning he will die soon – but can’t tell anybody at all since it would be interference. The weight of that, and the sorrow, causes her to quit the vetting process, leaving her with the worst job: a member of the security force that patrols the bleak, barren area along the border fences. She toils away there until a passing glimpse of herself in another 20 years startles her into action.
The concept of this book is simple, and yet, the story is so profound and beautiful. It’s not a page-turner or action-packed adventure, but it just has this subtlety that I wanted to keep returning to and sitting with. I could go on for a whole other paragraph about the book’s perfectly fitting cover, but instead, I will conclude by saying that The Other Valley is a really impressive debut, and I look forward to reading more from the author in the future.
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