Ballantine Books, July 26, 2016.
Four Stars
In San Francisco in the 1970s, Lux has created a life
for herself and her young son Benno, whose father was killed in the Vietnam
war. Lux has a close group of friends in the city, but she is estranged from
her parents and she never quite feels like she belongs in her own life. She
grew apart from her father after several rebellious incidents as a teenager,
and Benno’s biracial heritage was the last straw in their already difficult
relationship. However, as Benno gets older, he takes his first trip to stay
with his grandparents – and Lux has her first time alone in years. She decides
to go camping in the nearby Sonoma Valley, in an area known as the Valley of
the Moon.
In the middle of her first night in the valley, Lux
emerges from her tent into an eerie fog. She tries to find her way and
eventually stumbles into a community called Greengage. Everything in Greengage
seems very old-fashioned, and Lux thinks it may be part of a reenactment
society – but she soon learns that she has in fact stepped into the past.
According to Greengage’s founder Jacob, the members of the community have been
trapped there since the 1906 earthquake. While only a few months have passed
for them, they are shocked to learn that for Lux, it has been almost 70 years
since the earthquake.
Greengage is unmoored in time, with the days slowing
down and speeding up during the full moon. No one who enters the fog has been
able to survive, with the exception of Lux who seems to be able to come and go
as she pleases. And she does come and go over the years, whenever she has the
chance to escape to the Valley of the Moon. She finds herself increasingly
drawn to the simple life of Greengage – and especially to Jacob, who embodies
all of the community’s values. It is a communal setting where everyone works
together, sharing all the necessary tasks. On the farm with Jacob, Lux finally
feels like she belongs.
Unfortunately, Lux soon discovers that time does not
move at the same pace in Greengage as it does in San Francisco – and her time
spent with Jacob may mean sacrificing time with Benno. She is torn between the
two worlds. It is unclear how the time travel actually works – Lux is able to
travel back and forth, but no one else can. Time passes almost randomly in
Greengage, speeding up exponentially and losing Lux’s time in the real world.
This is clearly a fantasy novel, without any scientific details about time
travel – but that’s what I like about it. It’s certainly necessary to suspend
disbelief, but if you can, it’s definitely an enjoyable, almost magical, read.
This novel is being compared to The Time Traveler’s Wife, and it is of course similar in theme –
but in tone, Gideon’s writing is much more like Alice Hoffman. It is much more
magic realism than sci-fi – it’s a nice, easy read with a twist. There is a
slow, believable love story, although it is not the main focus of the story.
More than romantic love, this is a story about family – those we are born into,
and those we create. The ending is surprising but also kind of inevitable, and
brings Lux’s story full circle.
I received this novel from Ballantine Books and
NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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