Perris, California -- Rachel Stark, Hardcover

In this unforgettable debut novel, twenty-seven-year-old Tessa, pregnant with her third child and living in a trailer on her mother-in-law's property, encounters the woman she used to love--leading Tessa to question the very foundations of the life she's built

Abandoned first by her father and then her mother, as a girl Tessa is left to live with her abusive stepfather and stepbrother. She survives by finding reserves of strength in herself, and by the surprising, transformative love of another teenage girl, Mel, who sees through Tessa's tough exterior to the vulnerable, scarred, loving woman inside. When she suddenly loses Mel, too, Tessa stumbles into a saving grace of a different kind with Henry and his mama, Angie, becoming a mother and finding herself in a familial existence that somehow carries her into adulthood--until the day she runs into Mel, who has just returned to Perris after years away.

Filled with violence, tragedy, tenderness, longing, and the unvarnished courage of women living in a mostly unseen America, Perris, California is the utterly gripping story of Tessa's journey from trauma to healing, and it introduces us to one of the most indelible female characters since Bone Boatwright in Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina or Ruth Langmore in Ozark.

Author: Rachel Stark
Publisher: Penguin Press
Published: 03/26/2024
Pages: 368
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 1.30d
ISBN: 9780593656204

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 01/29/2024
Kirkus Reviews 02/01/2024
Booklist 02/15/2024 pg. 23

About the Author
Rachel Stark grew up in Perris, California. She received her bachelor's degree in creative writing from University of California, Riverside, and her master's degree in creative writing at University of California, Davis. She currently resides in southern Colorado where she writes, runs mountain trails, and teaches yoga.