From the author of The Inland Sea comes a stunning new novel about a couple's road trip through the American desert for fans of Valeria Luiselli's The Lost Children Archive and Rachel Cusk.

'Tremendously moving' Leslie Jamison

'Enormously impressive' Guardian

Eloise has known two great loves: her husband, Lewis, and the desert. Together, they set off on an unforgettable road trip through the American Southwest, passing vast canyons, glittering casinos and motels fallen into decay.

As Eloise documents the disappearing Colorado River, Lewis grieves his mother in the prickly terrain of his upbringing. Surrounded by loss, they cherish the miracle of having found each other, but each harbours a secret, driving them towards a destination neither is ready to face.

Haunting and richly atmospheric, this is a story about whether it's ever possible to truly know those closest to us, and an elegy for a land running dry.

PRAISE FOR ELEGY, SOUTHWEST:

'Exquisite'TLS

'Haunting and precise' Spectator

'Strikingly brilliant' Heidi Julavits

'Astonishingly and chillingly prescient' FT

'An expansive, ambitious novel' Ellena Savage

'A startlingly good writer' Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy

"Haunting and precise . . . Watts gracefully blends crises both personal and political, bodily and environmental" - Spectator

"This is the second time Watts has submerged her fiction in a mythic body of water (see her debut novel, The Inland Sea, 2020). The Australian-born author knows precisely what she is doing, and she does it with exquisite precision" - TLS

"Astonishingly and chillingly prescient. . . This is a rare kind of writing where every page offers something to linger on, beautiful and devastating in equal measure" - FT

"As the name suggests, this was never a journey that was going to end well. It's a credit to Watts' skills as a writer that she's able to foreshadow that so plausibly, while still keeping us guessing as to just what exactly the end - and its cost - will be. Tender and hauntingly sad" - Marie Claire

"While the wildfires rage on the horizon, the couple take an unforgettable journey through the desert, battling the vastness of nothing, dangerous droughts and the fracturing of their relationship. A profound novel that looks at grief of this territory and of parental loss" - Service95

"Make particular space on your 2025 to-read pile for Madeleine Watts' Elegy, Southwest. It's a road-trip novel that unfolds against the backdrop of California wildfires. In the Anthropocene, all fiction is eco-fiction." - Guardian Australia

"A married couple on a road trip in the American Southwest reckon with the problems with their relationship, a possible pregnancy, and imminent climate catastrophe. This book promises to be the perfect showcase for Watts' considerable skill at rendering humanity amid climate grief" - Literary Hub, Most Anticipated Books of 2025

"Part searing love story, part thought-provoking chronicle on climate change, Watts's narrative is a lament for loss" - Collagerie