The Golden State

April 1, 2018

Editor of the Millions and author of nonfiction featured in The Best American Essays 2016, Kiesling offers a first novel about young wife and mother Daphne, whose Turkish husband is being barred from the country. Tipping over the edge, Daphne flees San Francisco with toddler Honey but finds that living in high-desert Altavista only intensifies her dismay.

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Starred review from July 2, 2018
Kiesling’s intimate, culturally perceptive debut portrays a frazzled mother and a fractious America, both verging on meltdown. Thirty-something Daphne works for the Institute for the Study of Islamic Societies and Civilizations at a San Francisco university while raising her 16-month-old daughter, Honey, alone. Daphne’s Turkish husband, Engin, has been denied reentry into the United States. Daphne is also haunted by the death of a student, who was traveling on Institute funds. Tired of waiting for Engin to be allowed back and reaching the edge of a breakdown, Daphne packs up Honey and heads to Northern California’s high desert to take refuge in the house she inherited but rarely visits. She fixes tuna sandwiches and pancakes, finds her mother’s pomegranate-themed ornaments and collectibles, and attends her mother’s now nearly empty church, but the safety and emotional connection to her own childhood she seeks prove as tenuous as overseas communication with Engin in Istanbul or the local ventures that ensnare her: neighbor Cindy’s anti-government, anti-immigration secessionist movement and 92-year-old Alice’s scheme to visit the work camp where her husband served during World War II. Kiesling depicts parenting in the digital age with humor and brutal honesty and offers insights into language, academics, and even the United Nations. But perhaps best of all is her thought-provoking portrait of a pioneer community in decline as anger and obsession fray bonds between neighbors, family, and fellow citizens. Agent: Claudia Ballard, WME Entertainment.

July 1, 2018
A debut novel about new motherhood and political unrest from the editor of the online literary magazine The Millions.Daphne has a beautiful baby girl and an amazing job at the Al-Ihsan Foundation in San Francisco. She also has a husband who is stranded half a world away because of an unfortunate--and seemingly irresolvable--issue with U.S. Immigration. One day, the pressure of juggling these irreconcilable realities becomes a bit too much, so Daphne puts her daughter, Honey, in the car seat and heads for the wilds of Altavista, California. This is her mother's hometown, and, after her mother's death, Daphne became the owner of her grandparents' trailer. In a narrative that takes place over 10 days, Kiesling offers a painfully honest portrait of motherhood and offers glimpses of a California that few ever see--or even know exists. Life with a new baby is an underexplored topic in American literature. One of the only authors who comes to mind is Lydia Davis. Kiesling is similarly honest about this strange, disorienting time, but, where Davis is a master of microfiction, Kiesling covers this territory in exhaustive--and, frankly, exhausting--detail. On the one hand, this feels like a public service; on the other hand, anyone who has lived through this experience might not want to revisit it. The depiction of Eastern California--a land of cattle ranchers and desert, far, far away from the ocean and Hollywood--is both depressing and fascinating. Like so many American places, Altavista has seen better days. Resentment is a boom industry. The fact that Daphne is descended from a long-established family is offset by the fact that her husband is Turkish. There's even a group of secessionists, and the novel takes an unexpected turn when Daphne becomes embroiled in their revolution. This plot shift feels quite timely, but it also feels like it belongs to another book. Kiesling is a talented author, though, with a unique voice. She's very smart, very funny, and wonderfully empathetic. A technically uneven novel from a skilled and promising writer.

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August 1, 2018
Daphne has never felt more alone. Her husband is stuck in Turkey due to a processing error on his green card application, so the full weight of caring for their infant daughter, Honey, rests on Daphne's shoulders. The hustle and bustle of San Francisco starts feeling oppressive, so Daphne escapes with Honey to Altavista. She hopes that the peace and quiet of the small town, where her grandparents have left her a mobile home, will let her concentrate on being the best possible mother. But after meeting two other inhabitants of Altavista, she realizes that her plan isn't as simple as she thought. When personalities clash, a chain of events escalates to an unsettling finale. Kiesling's first novel encapsulates the intense and often conflicting feelings of early parenthood: frustration, tenderness, isolation. By playing with punctuation and sentence structure, Kiesling immerses the reader in the fragile headspace of the anxious new mother. With a style reminiscent of Claire Vaye Watkins and Sarah Stonich, The Golden State sparks the lovely, lonely feelings inside us all. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)