Driftwood

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 somethinga 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 finda 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.

Elizabeth Dutton is the author of 1,033 Reasons to Smile. She is a graduate of the creative writing master’s program at the University of Glasgow and has worked forMother Jones magazine. Driftwood is her first novel. Born and raised in California, Elizabeth now lives in Chesterfield, South Carolina, where she teaches English at the local community college.