The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard

Sixteen-year-old Odile Ozanne is an awkward, quiet girl, vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she'll decree who among the town's residents may be escorted deep into the woods, who may cross the border's barbed wire fence, who may make the arduous trek to descend into the next valley over. It's the same valley, the same town. But to the east, the town is 20 years ahead in time. To the west, it's twenty years behind. The only border crossings permitted by the Conseil are mourning tours: furtive viewings of the dead in towns where the dead are still alive.

When Odile recognizes two mourners she wasn't supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her classmate Edme have crossed the border from the future to see their son while he's still alive in Odile's present. Edme who is brilliant and funny, and the only person to truly know Odile is about to die. Sworn to secrecy by the Conseil so as not to disrupt the course of nature, Odile finds herself drawing closer to her doomed friend imperiling her own future.

Masterful and original,The Other Valleyis an affecting modern fable about the inevitable march of time and whether or not fate can be defied. Above all, it is about love and letting go, and the bonds, in both life and death, that never break. (From Simon & Schuster)

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Scott Alexander Howard is a writer from Vancouver. The Other Valley is his debut novel.