Lawrence Coates will read from his new novel The Garden of the World, published in 2012 by University of Nevada Press. The Garden of the World is the tale of a pioneering winemaking family headed by Paul Tourneau, a fiercely ambitious vintner determined to make the finest wine in California. His plans are disrupted by a phylloxera epidemic at the beginning of the twentieth century, the trials of national Prohibition, and the bitter alienation of his older son. Played out against the vividly depicted seasonal rhythms of a vineyard and winemaking, this is a moving saga of betrayal, loss, and the harsh consequences of unbreakable ambition.