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Yerba Buena

A Novel

by Nina LaCour

Narrator Julia Whelan

This audiobook uses AI narration.

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Length 8 hours 1 minute

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“A Nina LaCour Novel (noun): a kiss on your forehead as you're tucked in at night, a cathartic cry in the shower, a perfectly made cup of coffee in your favorite mug, a well-mixed cocktail condensation sweating down the sides of the glass on a hot summer night, a sad song on the radio on a long drive, a familiar face in an unexpected place, feeling at home in quiet spaces, and out of body in familiar places. Yerba Buena is everything you'd want from Nina LaCour's adult debut. Two young women, each laden with generations of burdens and hope find each other and fall in love. But circumstance has never been kind to either. Each wants so desperately to find the footing that feels most right to them, constantly mis-stepping on their way to becoming better partners, better sisters, better workers and the person they want to be.”
— Cassie • Wellesley Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Nina LaCour has always excelled at exploring the intimacies of the human heart and Yerba Buena is no exception. Sara and Emilie experienced great pain in their young lives. Their pain runs so deep it disrupts the blissful romance they have found together. Can they achieve the happiness they deserve? I can’t recommend this book enough, especially if you are a young woman trying to find your place in this troubled world.”
— Sofia • Phoenix Books

Bookseller recommendation

“This was a beautiful book, and expertly narrated by Julia Whelan. It's about love (not only romantic love, but also love of family, and love of passion projects like home renovation, mixing drinks, and floral arrangement), memory, trauma, and how we take care of each other. It's about flawed humans doing their best in a challenging world. This is among my favourites of this year and I highly recommend it!”
— Tracey • Turning the Tide Bookstore

Bookseller recommendation

“This book is like a beautiful dream in a gorgeous restaurant (set in San Francisco) with an alluring and mysterious cast of characters that I wanted to know everything about. I loved all the descriptions of the fine dining and restaurant culture. I fell hard for the swoony bartender with the tragic look in her eye making magical cocktails and drawing everyone's attention. A lovely, vulnerable, romantic and at times heartbreaking reading experience. ”
— Zinna • A Great Good Place for Books

Bookseller recommendation

“This book stole my breath away. Raw and intimate, it follows the lives of two women through heartbreak, loss, and adolescent uncertainty as they weave in and out of each other’s lives. I wanted to hug this book to my chest when I finished.”
— Margaret Hansen • Brick & Mortar Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Printz Award-winning author Nina LaCour’s debut adult novel, Yerba Buena, is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. It’s the story of two lost women who find each other against all the roadblocks and barriers they’ve each surrounded themselves with. It’s also Nina LaCour at her best, her command of the English language is on full display here-I honestly believe there is nothing she can’t do.”
— Kathleen • A Great Good Place for Books

Summary
About the author

"Full of sensory details, vivid characters, and moment after moment of gorgeously rendered ordinary life, this audiobook is a queer must-listen." -AudioFile

This program is masterfully narrated by award-winning "Golden Voice" narrator Julia Whelan.

Yerba Buena is the debut adult novel by the bestselling and award-winning YA author Nina LaCour, following two women on a star-crossed journey toward each other.

A Most Anticipated Book (Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, The Washington Post, Vulture, NBC News, Good Housekeeping, Parade, Electric Lit, BookRiot, Bustle, Goodreads, LGBTQ Reads, Autostraddle, Veranda Magazine, The Lesbian Review, and more)

“A love story for our time.”—Tara Conklin, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics

"This book is a precious thing."—Casey McQuiston, New York Times bestselling author of One Last Stop

When Sara Foster runs away from home at sixteen, she leaves behind the girl she once was, capable of trust and intimacy. Years later, in Los Angeles, she is a sought-after bartender, renowned as much for her brilliant cocktails as for the mystery that clings to her. Across the city, Emilie Dubois is in a holding pattern, yearning for the beauty and community her Creole grandparents cultivated but unable to commit. On a whim, she takes a job arranging flowers at the glamorous restaurant Yerba Buena and embarks on an affair with the married owner.

The morning Emilie and Sara first meet at Yerba Buena, their connection is immediate. But the damage both women carry, and the choices they have made, pulls them apart again and again. When Sara's old life catches up to her, upending everything she thought she wanted just as Emilie has finally gained her own sense of purpose, they must decide if their love is more powerful than their pasts.

At once exquisite and expansive, astonishing in its humanity and heart, Yerba Buena is a love story for our time and a propulsive journey through the lives of two women trying to find somewhere, or someone, to call home.

A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.

Fiction Romance LGBTQIA+ Fiction Fiction - Literary

NINA LACOUR is the Michael L. Printz award-winning and nationally bestselling author of Watch Over Me, We Are Okay, Hold Still, and Everything Leads to You. She hosts the podcast Keeping a Notebook and teaches for Hamline University's MFA in writing for Children and Young Adults program. A former indie bookseller and high school English teacher, she lives with her family in San Francisco.