{"title":"Scott Alexander Howard","description":"\u003cp\u003eScott Alexander Howard crafts engaging narratives in the realm of \u003cem\u003egeneral fiction\u003c\/em\u003e, weaving stories that explore human connections and the nuances of everyday life. His works, such as \u003cstrong\u003eThe Other Valley\u003c\/strong\u003e, invite readers into richly drawn worlds where the ordinary often reveals unexpected depth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFans of thoughtful, character-driven tales will appreciate Howard's nuanced storytelling, which balances emotional insight with subtle explorations of place and identity. Each novel offers a compelling journey that lingers beyond the final page.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-other-valley-by-scott-alexander-howard-9781838959630","title":"The Other Valley","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAstonishingly brilliant. My book of the year.\u003c\/em\u003e – Liz Nugent, \u003cem\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/em\u003e-bestselling author of \u003cem\u003eStrange Sally Diamond\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Emily St John Mandel and Kazuo Ishiguro, this is an exhilarating literary speculative novel about an isolated town neighbouring its own past and future, and a young girl who faces an impossible choice.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSixteen-year-old Odile Ozanne is an awkward, quiet girl, but everyone knows she's destined to land a coveted seat on the Conseil. During her apprenticeship, she competes to become one of the judges who decide which of the town's residents may travel across the border. If she earns the position, she will decree who may be escorted deep into the woods, who may cross the border's barbed wire fence, and who may make the arduous trek over the western mountain range – or perhaps the eastern range – to descend into the next valley over.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIt's the same valley, the same town. However, to the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it's twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness. The only border crossings permitted by the Conseil are mourning tours: furtive viewings of the dead in towns where the dead are still alive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOdile, wise beyond her years, will surely pass the Conseil's vetting. But when she happens upon a mourning tour she wasn't supposed to see, she realises her dear friend Edme's parents have crossed the border from the east, from twenty years in the future, to view their son still alive in Odile's present. Edme, who's so funny and light. Edme, who's a violin virtuoso at just sixteen. Edme, who's the first boy to even see Odile, to really like her... And it's Edme who's going to die.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSworn to secrecy by the Conseil in order to preserve the timeline, Odile finds herself drawn even closer to the doomed boy. When Edme dies far sooner than Odile expects, and when she does nothing to thwart his fate, she's deeply shaken. The loss, her foreknowledge, and the weight of her rare and varied grief all throw Odile's own future, her adult life, into a devastating, downward spiral.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIf your soul was stricken by the years, your teeth bloodied from all of life's blows, would you risk being seen by the armed patrols? Would you gamble with everyone's lives, with your own, with the annihilation of an entire timeline, to hike across the border and get back to where it all went wrong?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46533410521324,"sku":"9781838959630","price":34.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/20581123482842.jpg?v=1749387828"},{"product_id":"the-other-valley-by-scott-alexander-howard-9781838959654","title":"The Other Valley","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAstonishingly brilliant. My book of the year.\u003c\/em\u003e Liz Nugent, Sunday Times-bestselling author of \u003cem\u003eStrange Sally Diamond\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Emily St John Mandel and Kazuo Ishiguro, an exhilarating novel about an isolated town neighboured by its own past and future, and a young girl who faces an impossible choice...\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWould you sacrifice the future for love?\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSixteen-year-old Odile vies for a coveted seat on an elite council that decides who may cross her town's heavily guarded borders. To the east, the town is twenty years ahead in time. To the west, it's twenty years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn't supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he's still alive in Odile's present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEdme—who is brilliant, funny, and the only person to truly know Odile—is going to die. Sworn to secrecy to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the top candidate. Yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, jeopardizing the future and her place in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47600038478060,"sku":"9781838959654","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9df590619272b57430dcc1441e54ccd8.jpg?v=1778037168"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/scott-alexander-howard.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}