Driftwood: A Novel

“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 review

Los 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.

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