In the Heart of the Valley of Love

"An apocalyptic picture of America on the brink of civil disorder and social collapse. . . . The writing is lucid and finely honed, often lyrical and occasionally magical."—Michiko Kakutani, New York TimesCynthia Kadohata explores human relationships in a Los Angeles of the future, where rich and poor are deeply polarized and where water, food, and gas, not to mention education, cannot be taken for granted. There is an intimate, understated, even gentle quality to Kadohata's writing—this is not an apocalyptic dystopia—that makes it difficult to shrug off the version of the future embodied in her book.