Lydia Kiesling Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Lydia Kiesling is a published American author.

She is not only an author but an editor for The Millions. She has also written essays and critical pieces. They have appeared in a variety of publications that include Slate, The Guardian, New York Times magazine, and the online edition of the New Yorker.

Lydia Kiesling officially became a fiction author with the debut of her first full length novel. The book is titled The Garden State. It was released in 2018 for readers to enjoy for the first time and was put out by MCD publishing. If you are looking for something new and innovative to read that is different from the same old stuff, then check out this debut work from a talented writer for yourself!

Lydia Kiesling is the author of The Golden State, a debut work that others are praising as ‘razor sharp’ and more. The novel has been selected by Millions.com as one of the most anticipated book picks of the year. It was also nominated for the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction. A story about a young mother that is going through the high and low points of life as a mother in the United States, this is a novel that others are calling ‘gorgeous’.

In this story, readers get to meet the main character, a young woman that goes by the name of Daphne. She is a single and young mother and the only problem with her new identity and responsibilities would be the fact that she is close to having a breakdown.

Things could be better because she’s just having to contend with everything that life is throwing at her on her own. Her toddler is named Honey and she has the sole care of her. Being a young mother can be difficult enough, but it can be particularly tough if you’re doing everything on your own.

She had her own life started in the city of San Francisco. Her life there may have been sensible, but it was also rather strained. She decides to get out of there and head for the Altavista high desert so that she can start again or just get away from the pressures of her life. As she flees with Honey, she is well aware that she is breaking under the huge weight of her situation.

She’s a single parent and the weight of her situation is really starting to get to her. Daphne would otherwise be able to rely on her husband, who is Turkish, but things are way too complicated when it comes to that situation. He cannot come back to America at the current moment because there has apparently been an error in processing.

Whether or not that is true, she has no idea. It could be that the country is blocking him from entering, or it could be that he does not want to return and is telling her a lie. She has no choice but to contend with how the cards have been dealt to her. She’s trying to do the best that she can, but she is emotionally and financially feeling totally alone and with a child to care for on top of it.

Daphne is doing what she can to try and get by and take care of Honey too. Her grandparents did leave her a mobile home, and so she moves into this inheritance and tries to get her head straight. She hopes that being in an area that is this quiet will be able to bring her the clarity that she so desperately needs.

She’s doing the best that she can to try and get the situation to something that is manageable. Maybe her husband and his situation will resolve and she will only have to deal with this nightmare for a little longer. That’s what she hopes. As for the clarity that she was searching for, she’s doing her best to make sure that she opens her mind and it arrives, but it is eluding her.

The ten days that follow find Daphne feeling more anxious than she would have preferred. She came here to get away and relax, but it seems that she is more jittery than ever. She’s not only behaving slightly erratically, she is trying to deal with her feelings and the situation by drinking. Of course that is not going to help much, but it clearly shows how she feels overwhelmed by just about everything in her life.

Daphne chooses to go through the town because she is looking for a distraction. She just wants to do anything or find anyone that could help just provide something that can punctuate the time that she is spending all alone with just her baby to take care of.

She does end up meeting some people. One of those people is her neighbor, a woman named Cindy. She is involved in her own secessionist movement actively. Daphne also makes friends with a woman named Alice, an older woman that has come to Altavista as her life is coming gradually to a close.

The young mother is developing relationships, but sees this as a good thing. She never thinks that the new friends that she is making could end up culminating in a standoff that’s dangerous to them all. When this happens, she must find a way to reconcile the inner narrative within herself and the reality of a world that seems to be still deeply divided.

Struggling to try and take care of Honey as well as herself, this is the story of a woman that is trying to keep her head above water when she has limited resources and little to no support system to do so. Full of humor and with sharp and observant detail, set in California in a part that is not that well known but beautiful nonetheless, this is a book to check out.

Describing motherhood and all of the worry and the love that can come with it, this is an incredible debut novel from Lydia Kiesling. Pick up a copy and read to the end to find out what happens!