Yellow Pine by Claire Vaye Watkins.jpg
Yellow Pine by Claire Vaye Watkins.jpg

Yellow Pine by Claire Vaye Watkins

from $11.60
Hardcover:

"Watkins has never written more confidently or staked so much on her unmistakable voice, which winds through environmental catastrophe, goofy comedy, and sexual obsession. … Think Miranda July with cacti." —Ron Charles

"Exhilarating ... a novel with huge and electric convictions."—Megha Majumdar

"Inimitable, irrepressible, wild and true."—Joy Williams

"A wild desert howl of celebration and elegy."—Karen Russell

Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Summer by NPR, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Literary Hub, The Millions, and more

In the latest novel from "our most significant rising writer of the American West" (Vulture), a woman searches for a way to reclaim the miracle of life in a world seemingly hellbent on doom

In her homestead deep in the Mojave, Rose has found a way to live "on the other side of the portal," with an intentionality that’s brought her hard-won peace and freedom. She’s navigating single parenthood, and she’s found a community out at Yellow Pine, where a group of spirited misfits have mounted a stand against the "green energy gold rush" Rose is certain will destroy her beloved desert. When she accepts an overture from Miles, an old flame, their passion proves as intense – and unsteady – as ever. But even as their rekindled romance flickers, it fuels a deeper, more consuming drive in Rose: to birth not only another child but a fuller, more intact way of being in the face of rapacious consumerism, industrialization, and misanthropy. Enlisting her on-again-off-again lover, her fellow activists, and her oddball neighbors, she embarks upon an unorthodox scheme to recover from her rugged individualism, embrace love in all its pain and grace, and come home to the divine.

As furious, bawdy, searching, and searingly original as ever, in Yellow Pine Watkins blazes a trail toward a radically reimagined vision of a good life in a ravaged time.

"Watkins has never written more confidently or staked so much on her unmistakable voice, which winds through environmental catastrophe, goofy comedy, and sexual obsession. … Think Miranda July with cacti." —Ron Charles

"Exhilarating ... a novel with huge and electric convictions."—Megha Majumdar

"Inimitable, irrepressible, wild and true."—Joy Williams

"A wild desert howl of celebration and elegy."—Karen Russell

Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Summer by NPR, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Literary Hub, The Millions, and more

In the latest novel from "our most significant rising writer of the American West" (Vulture), a woman searches for a way to reclaim the miracle of life in a world seemingly hellbent on doom

In her homestead deep in the Mojave, Rose has found a way to live "on the other side of the portal," with an intentionality that’s brought her hard-won peace and freedom. She’s navigating single parenthood, and she’s found a community out at Yellow Pine, where a group of spirited misfits have mounted a stand against the "green energy gold rush" Rose is certain will destroy her beloved desert. When she accepts an overture from Miles, an old flame, their passion proves as intense – and unsteady – as ever. But even as their rekindled romance flickers, it fuels a deeper, more consuming drive in Rose: to birth not only another child but a fuller, more intact way of being in the face of rapacious consumerism, industrialization, and misanthropy. Enlisting her on-again-off-again lover, her fellow activists, and her oddball neighbors, she embarks upon an unorthodox scheme to recover from her rugged individualism, embrace love in all its pain and grace, and come home to the divine.

As furious, bawdy, searching, and searingly original as ever, in Yellow Pine Watkins blazes a trail toward a radically reimagined vision of a good life in a ravaged time.

  • Publisher: Riverhead Books

    Title: Yellow Pine

    Author: Claire Vaye Watkins

    On Sale Date: July 21, 2026

    ISBN 13: 9798217045020

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $29.00

    BISAC: Literary Fiction

    Page Count: 256

    Dimensions: 5.5 in x 8.25 in

  • Claire Vaye Watkins is the author of the novels Gold Fame Citrus and I Love You but I’ve Chosen Darkness, and the story collection Battleborn, winner of multiple prizes and a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” honoree selection. She teaches at the University of California, Irvine, and lives in Twentynine Palms, California.

  • Readers are calling it wild, funny, and unforgettable:

    • "Watkins writes the desert like nobody else — this book is strange and alive."

    • "Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. I couldn’t put it down."

    • "A love letter to the Mojave and to messy, unconventional families."

    • "Furious, funny, and completely original — vintage Watkins."

This book is for you if

  • You want literary fiction that’s as funny as it is furious.

  • You’re drawn to desert settings and off-grid communities pushing back against development.

  • You loved the voice-driven, unruly energy of Claire Vaye Watkins’s earlier work and want more.

  • You’re interested in stories about unconventional paths to motherhood and family.

  • You want a novel that takes environmental collapse seriously without losing its sense of humor.

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