NOVEL

THE PAST IS A PLACE IN CALIFORNIA BY ALI RAE

It has been a year since a tragic accident ripped Alexa apart from her friends, and pushed her to drop out of college and leave her hometown. After spending four seasons alone with her memories, Alexa’s best friend reaches out to her to ask her to be the maid-of-honor in her wedding. As she is forced to revisit the loss that haunts her, she must decide whether or not to go back to the love that crushed her and the place where everything fell apart. If she goes back, will she be able to face the people she left behind and the demons of her past?

PRAISE FOR THE PAST IS A PLACE IN CALIFORNIA

“Ali Rae writes with a depth and sensitivity that are rare in young authors. The characters she introduces are nuanced and genuine, lingering in the mind between chapters and calling us back to read more. This is a wonderful debut for a promising new writer.”
-Bob Dickson, Writer & Professor

“What stands out the most about ‘The Past is a Place in California’ is a lyrical writing style that is almost poetic… Phrasing like ‘The waves of my memory washed him away as quickly as the waves in the Pacific had that night,’ [is] the work of a talented writer who knows how to use place as a literary device.”
-Judge, 27th Annual Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards

“Ali Rae’s prose is slyly hypnotic, drawing you in slowly to a rich interior landscape of feeling and longing.”
-Dr. Grant Horner, Classical Professor

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