The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard Summary

The Other Valley is a literary speculative novel about sixteen-year-old Odile Ozanne who lives in a unique town where neighboring valleys exist twenty years in the past and future. When she discovers that her friend Edme will die after witnessing his parents from the future on a mourning tour, she faces an impossible dilemma between preserving the timeline and saving someone she loves.

Scott Alexander Howard is a Canadian author and philosopher based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Toronto and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard, where his work focused on memory, emotion, and literature. The Other Valley is his debut novel, published in 2024.

The Other Valley is ideal for readers who enjoy literary science fiction, philosophical explorations of time and identity, and character-driven narratives. Fans of thoughtful speculative fiction that prioritizes emotional depth over action will appreciate this novel. It also appeals to those interested in coming-of-age stories with metaphysical elements and ethical dilemmas about fate and free will.

The Other Valley is a beautifully written debut that earned an Indies Introduce selection and Indie Next List pick. Reviewers praise its elegant prose, unique time-travel premise, and emotionally resonant storytelling. The novel masterfully balances philosophical depth with accessible narrative, making it a deeply satisfying read that explores grief, choice, and the consequences of knowledge without relying on sci-fi spectacle.

The Conseil is the governing body in The Other Valley that decides which residents may cross borders to visit past or future valleys. Members undergo rigorous vetting training to assess visitation requests, balancing compassion for grieving individuals against the catastrophic risk of timeline interference. The Conseil represents a utilitarian approach, prioritizing the welfare of the majority over individual happiness and enforcing strict punishment for any violations.

In The Other Valley, time travel occurs through physical geography rather than technology. The same town repeats in an endless sequence across valleys—twenty years ahead to the east and twenty years behind to the west. Residents can physically cross guarded borders to visit these temporal neighbors, but interference with past or future has catastrophic consequences, potentially erasing entire existences as "time rolls over" the altered reality.

The Other Valley explores profound themes including grief and mourning, the weight of foreknowledge, and the ethics of interference versus compassion. Scott Alexander Howard examines how choices shape destiny, the tension between personal desires and collective good, and the fragility of identity when reality itself can be rewritten. The novel also addresses coming-of-age struggles, memory's relationship to selfhood, and whether actions can be moral if their victims never existed.

The second half of The Other Valley advances twenty years to show Odile as an adult, revealing how her teenage experiences shaped her life. The narrative shifts from the magical, nostalgic tone of youth to expose the darker realities behind the valley system. This section explores sustained grief, missed opportunities, and the burden of living with knowledge of what could have been, creating a stark contrast that illustrates different facets of the world Howard created.

Mourning tours in The Other Valley are supervised visits where residents from future valleys travel back in time to see deceased loved ones while they're still alive in the present. Edme's parents visit from twenty years ahead to view their son before his death. These tours require strict Conseil approval, elaborate precautions to prevent recognition, and careful monitoring to ensure visitors don't interfere with the timeline or reveal future knowledge.

The Other Valley reflects Scott Alexander Howard's philosophy background through its exploration of utilitarian ethics, personal identity across altered timelines, and moral responsibility for unknowable consequences. The novel questions whether erasing someone from existence constitutes harm if they never "truly" existed and examines how foreknowledge affects moral agency. Howard's mentor character Ivret delivers profound insights into how tampering with time undoes not just events but entire existences and facts.

The Other Valley distinguishes itself through literary rather than genre focus, emphasizing character development and philosophical exploration over plot mechanics. Unlike traditional time travel narratives, Howard uses the fantastical premise subtly to examine universal human experiences—grief, regret, adolescent uncertainty, and the longing to change the past. The novel's two-part structure and shift in tone create a uniquely layered examination of how perspective transforms our understanding of the same world.

Odile and Edme's relationship forms the emotional core of The Other Valley. Edme is described as brilliant, funny, and the only person who truly sees the awkward, quiet Odile. After discovering he will die, Odile draws closer to him despite knowing the relationship imperils her Conseil candidacy. Their connection explores the pain of loving someone while carrying the burden of their future death and questions whether foreknowledge makes loss more bearable or unbearable.