Carson Valley: A Novel - Softcover

Barich, Bill

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1634505484 ISBN 13: 9781634505482

Publisher: Skyhorse, 2015

Synopsis

From one of California’s most celebrated writers comes a generous and deeply absorbing novel, as filled with warmth and the hope of second chances as the land it describes.

Returning from New York to the vineyards of Northern California to be with her dying mother, Anna Torelli never expects that the trip will change her life. But when she meets Arthur Atwater, he father’s vineyard manager a man as emotionally bruised and as fiercely independent as she is Anna is pulled back into the rhythms of the growing season, into the radiant landscape of her childhood, and into a love affair that rouses her as nothing has before. Carson Valley is also home to Anna’s aging father, Victor, the son of Italian immigrants who first planted the vineyard in the 1890s, and his foreman, Antonio Lopez, a Mexican immigrant whose marital troubles deepen when his cousin Omar Perez crosses the border illegally to work the vineyard harvest.

Carson Valley is a masterful work of social realism as insightful about modern love as it is about rural life in the grip of change.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

About this title

Review

Carson Valley, the place, lies in Sonoma County, 80 miles north of San Francisco. It is an agricultural center, a prime spot for growing wine grapes, though its character has been changing as the nearby city of Santa Rosa extends its suburbs deeper into the valley. Carson Valley, the novel, is the first such offering by accomplished short-story writer and essayist Bill Barich. It details the changing fortunes of vineyard owner Victor Torelli, his family, and the people who labor in his fields. The novel begins with Victor's daughter, Anna, returning to the valley after a failed marriage to care for her ailing mother. Despite her resolve not to become involved in any further romantic entanglements, Anna is drawn to the vineyard's manager, Arthur, a man with a checkered past, a propensity to drink at the first sign of trouble, and the unlikely capacity to love completely and without reservation.

First and foremost, Carson Valley is a love story--the love between a man and a woman, between father and daughter, between friends, and also love for the land. Barich, who once lived in vineyard country, brings the valley to life and peoples it with fully realized, deeply sympathetic characters who lodge in the reader's memory long after the book is read.

From the Inside Flap

wn novel of love, loss and redemption by the author of Big Dreams. Since 1893, the Torelli clan has owned 100 vineyard acres in Carson Valley, California, but the traditions tying them to the land are now in flux. Returning to her family home, Anna Torelli is filled with an emotional awakening as she embarks upon an affair of the heart. 352 pp. Author readings. 30,000 print.
From the Hardcover edition.

About this edition

• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1634505484
• ISBN 13: 9781634505482
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352