Joy Nicholson

Medina Mason is a defiant, awkward newcomer to the affluent beach community of Palos Verdes, California. As her parents' marriage disintegrates and her beloved brother falls prey to the temptations of drugs and the lunacy of their mother, Medina surfs to survive, finding a bitter solace in the rough comfort of the waves. This is the moving story of growing up "different," of the love between siblings, and of one girl's power to save herself.

A Novel

The Tribes of Palos Verdes

From the author of The Tribes of Palos Verdes, a compelling new novel about a couple's getaway to a Mexican paradise that goes horribly wrong. Joy Nicholson's second novel, The Road to Esmeralda, is a dark, seductive story about Americans abroad. Fed up with their L.A. lives, Nick and Sarah decide to head south to Mexico. They are looking for something: love, self-fulfillment, inspiration, or even just peace of mind. However, as the roads get windier and the jungle thicker, this naïve pair realizes that all of the trappings of society-greed, drugs, violence and jealousy-exist even in the remotest of places. Even tiny Esmeralda has a secret agenda . . . While her prose remains hearfelt and spare, Nicholson, in The Road to Esmeralda, also reveals a political edge. In exploring the prejudices of a small Mexican town, she weaves a harrowing and tragic story of love, devastation, and what it means to be a young, intelligent American in a very angry world.

The Road to Esmeralda

Joy Nicholson's The Tribes of Palos Verdes is a Los Angeles Times bestseller and now a major motion picture starring Jennifer Garner, Maika Monroe, and Cody Fern. “Nicholson captures the California-coast culture. . . . Medina shows what it’s like to feel ‘six million years old’ way before your time."—Entertainment Weekly “Impressive . . . Captures what it is to be young, intelligent, and very alone.”—Us Weekly “Nicholson’s evocation of character, her ability to bring Medina fully to life, makes this work. She writes with snapshot immediacy. . . . A writer to keep in mind.”—David Ulin, Salon Medina Mason is a defiant, awkward fourteen-year-old living in the affluent beach community of Palos Verdes, California. The pressure is intense in their high-stakes world, and Medina’s family begins to break under the stress. Her parents’ marriage disintegrates and her beloved brother turns to drugs in order to cope. Medina turns to the ocean to escape it all. She surfs to survive, finding a bitter solace in the rough comfort of the waves. “An inspiring portrait of a young woman unswayed by other people’s pettiness” (Mademoiselle), this is the moving story of growing up “different,” of the love between siblings, and of one girl’s power to save herself

Joy Nicholson

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