Driftwood

“Dutton’s fiction debut is a stellar, thought-provoking novel about life, death, California, music, and more. . . . If you’ve never been to California, you might feel like you have visited after reading this creative and unforgettable story. For connoisseurs of singular fiction.” —Library Journal, starred reviewLos Angeles, California: Clem Jasper is a twenty-seven-year-old trust funder with a world-famous rock musician for a father. Unsure what do with her life, she spends her time just floating, a cynical observer of the Hollywood scene around her. But when her dad suddenly dies, Clem discovers he’s left her something—a series of letters that take her on a strange and revelatory road trip across the iconic Californian terrain. Ignoring her aunt’s suggestion to pitch the trip as a reality show, she embarks on her own to discover just what it was that her father meant her to find—a secret he couldn’t tell her until now.With a voice reminiscent of Rainbow Rowell, Dutton’s Driftwood is a surprising, poignant, and funny debut. Dutton deftly captures the mythology of California with a bright and unusual take on the freedom of the open road, the power of music, and what it means, even in the midst of grief, to be a family.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.

"Dutton’s fiction debut is a stellar, thought-provoking novel about life, death, California, music, and more. Clem is a wry narrator, and the dialog is sharp and refreshingly realistic (F-bombs!). Born and raised in California, Dutton is well qualified to describe the various locales, and her renderings are poetically descriptive without being overdone or cloying. If you’ve never been to California, you might feel like you have visited after reading this creative and unforgettable story. For connoisseurs of singular fiction." —Library Journal, starred review"[Dutton's] voice springs off the page as if she's speaking aloud. . . . A road trip novel that will make readers want to hop into the car alongside Clem and keep driving." —Kirkus Reviews, "Dutton’s fiction debut is a stellar, thought-provoking novel about life, death, California, music, and more. Clem is a wry narrator, and the dialog is sharp and refreshingly realistic (F-bombs!). Born and raised in California, Dutton is well qualified to describe the various locales, and her renderings are poetically descriptive without being overdone or cloying. If you’ve never been to California, you might feel like you have visited after reading this creative and unforgettable story. For connoisseurs of singular fiction." —Library Journal, starred review"[Dutton's] voice springs off the page as if she's speaking aloud. . . . A road trip novel that will make readers want to hop into the car alongside Clem and keep driving." —Kirkus Reviews

Elizabeth Dutton is the author of 1,033 Reasons to Smile. She is a graduate of the creative writing master’s program at the University of Glasgow and has worked for Mother Jones magazine. Driftwood is her first novel. Born and raised in California, Elizabeth now lives in Chesterfield, South Carolina, where she teaches English at the local community college.