Sourland

A Novel

De: Ariel Delgado Dixon

A gripping, propulsive novel about succession, sex, and revenge on a California marijuana farm

“Deliciously written and compulsively readable . . . As the ex-lovers of a missing weed farmer grapple for control of her land and harvest, they contend with the force of her presence and the complexities of their own pasts.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House and Her Body and Other Parties

Sapphire and her farm, Sourland, are fixtures of Northern California’s rugged wilderness, offering refuge to rejects, rebels, and outcasts—anyone willing to work and learn. But the haven Sapphire has built is fractured when she suddenly goes missing, her scorched truck abandoned on a mountain road.

Frankie, a disgraced ballerina and Sapphire’s former girlfriend and right-hand woman, returns to Sourland, claiming ownership of the farm. When she arrives, Frankie finds that Fizz—Sapphire’s most recent lover, an ex–baseball player with a preternatural green thumb—has already begun prepping Sourland for its biggest harvest yet.

As the two grapple for power, the farm’s fate hangs in the balance, and with it, the future Fizz and Frankie each covet for themselves. Past demons and scorned admirers remain hauntingly close, while the specter of Sapphire looms over the farm: in cryptic notes, in bud-tender gossip, in every blade of grass and whorl of smoke.

A brilliantly constructed novel of desire and betrayal, Sourland sparkles with the beauty and grime of the California woods. Dixon’s novel warns that our true nature catches up to us all—no matter how far we run.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“As the ex-lovers of a missing weed farmer grapple for control of her land and harvest, they contend with the force of her presence and the complexities of their own pasts against the sensuous Northern California wilderness. Deliciously written and compulsively readable, Sourland captures the dying days of a band of outlaws ensnared in a web of pleasure, labor, and loss.”—Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House and Her Body and Other Parties

“I am in love with this story, the way one hillside can be a world unto itself, imperiled and lasting. . . . From the smallest noticing in exquisite detail to the carnal twist of plot and fortune, what a shockingly delightful book.”—Jackie Polzin, author of Brood

“Sourland is an absorbing, sensuous novel about sex and ambition, and what happens when a marijuana farmer disappears and two of her former lovers vie for control of the crop. Dixon’s characters love and fight with primal urgency, even as they save the best of themselves for their beloved plants. In prose that is as lush as the dankest harvest, Sourland is a bittersweet symphony of sweat, smoke, and dirt.”—Elizabeth Gonzalez James, author of The Bullet Swallower

“A mind-blowing, page-turning, utterly original literary thriller, Sourland is a novel of passion, shifting allegiances, and dangerous power struggles set on an illegal weed farm. Ariel Delgado Dixon packs this gritty underworld with sex, brutal violence, and virtuosic sentences. I stayed up way too late to find out who makes it out of Sourland alive. . . . A high-octane masterpiece.”—Mary Pauline Lowry, author of The Roxy Letters