The Shortest Way Home

In her debut novel crackling with humor, heart, and an unforgettable cast of characters, Miriam Parker follows one woman's journey from Iowa to New York City to California wine country, to figure out what being true to oneself really means.

After years of dreaming of and working toward a life more stable than the one she grew up in, Hannah is finally about to have everything she ever wanted. With a high-paying job, an apartment in Manhattan, and a boyfriend about to propose, all she and Ethan have to do is make it through the last couple of weeks of grad school, and the future they had planned will be theirs to keep.

But when they take a romantic weekend trip to Sonoma, and Hannah is spontaneously offered a marketing job at the first (and seemingly financially unstable) winery they visit and doesn't immediately refuse, their meticulously planned forever comes crashing down around them. And then Hannah impulsively does the unthinkable--she turns down her job in New York and decides to stay in California.

Abandoning your dream job and life shouldn't feel this good. But for Hannah, it is an eye-opening experience; and she realizes that maybe, after all her dream-chasing, she hasn't actually been caring for herself. And this new life certainly seems like a dream come true--living in a picturesque cottage overlooking a vineyard in lush Sonoma; new friends with pasts and hopes the likes of which she's never encountered before; and William, the handsome son of the winery owners and an aspiring film director who captures Hannah's heart only to leave for the very city she let go.

The mission to rescue the failing winery becomes a mission to rescue Hannah from the image of herself she thought she wanted. The young girl who ached to escape Iowa and leave her past behind for a glamorous life is now given the chance to come to terms with the upbringing that made her who she is. The Shortest Way Home is a heartwarming story of one woman who sheds expectations in order to claim her own happy ending.

Miriam Parker has worked in book publishing for more than seventeen years, and is currently the Associate Publisher of Ecco. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from UNC Wilmington and a BA in English from Columbia University. Her short stories have been published in The Florida Review and Fourteen Hills. She currently lives in Brooklyn with her spaniel, Leopold Bloom. The Shortest Way Home is her first novel.