Madeleine Watts – författare

'This book is a fever dream, a mood, a spell, an entire climate filled with a particular kind of desert winter light - harsh, unsparing, and beautiful' Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters

'Astonishingly and chillingly prescient . . . a rare kind of writing where every page offers something to linger on' FT

Eloise has known only two great loves: her husband, Lewis, and the desert. An academic living in Brooklyn, she is mesmerized by tales of the American Southwest, that paradise built on quicksand with less water every passing year. When the couple set out on a road trip tracing the course of the Colorado River, Eloise researches its lakes and dams, while Lewis grieves his mother in the prickly wasteland where he never felt quite at home.

Together they cruise past gaping canyons, glittering casinos and motels gone to seed, travelling through the red-gold light of nearby wildfires. They are young and they have each other, and for a moment the whole world seems to shimmer with glorious possibility. But within the close confines of the car a chasm starts to open between them.

This is a hauntingly beautiful love story about the mystery of other people - at once an excavation of a relationship, and an elegy for a desert running dry.

PRAISE FOR ELEGY, SOUTHWEST:

'Exquisite'TLS

'Haunting and precise' Spectator

'Profound' Service95

'Astounding, heartbreaking, and important' Elvia Wilk

'Strikingly brilliant' Heidi Julavits

'An expansive, ambitious novel' Ellena Savage

'Tremendously moving' Leslie Jamison

'Enormously impressive' Guardian

Eloise has known two great loves: her husband, Lewis, and the desert. Together, they set off on an unforgettable road trip through the American Southwest, passing vast canyons, glittering casinos and motels fallen into decay.

As Eloise documents the disappearing Colorado River, Lewis grieves his mother in the prickly terrain of his upbringing. Surrounded by loss, they cherish the miracle of having found each other, but each harbours a secret, driving them towards a destination neither is ready to face.

Haunting and richly atmospheric, this is a story about whether it's ever possible to truly know those closest to us, and an elegy for a land running dry.

PRAISE FOR ELEGY, SOUTHWEST:

'Exquisite'TLS

'Haunting and precise' Spectator

'Strikingly brilliant' Heidi Julavits

'Astonishingly and chillingly prescient' FT

'An expansive, ambitious novel' Ellena Savage

'A startlingly good writer' Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy