All the New Books to Read This November, From Sci-Fi Novels to Memoirs

A giant cactus grounds a woman grappling with grief in Melissa Broder's strange and touching novel "Death Valley." An unnamed woman stops at a Best Western while on a road trip. She's on the road as a reprieve from the emotionally intense job of caring for her father, whose recent car accident has left him in the ICU. When a receptionist recommends she take a hike, the trail leads her to an impossibly massive cactus with a door that calls to her. Her entrance into the cactus begins a journey of catharsis, tracing the fear and anxieties of being responsible for another person's survival as well as her own.

Release date: Oct. 3