{"product_id":"2940169408683","title":"A Tale of Two Valleys: Wine, Wealth and the Battle for the Good Life in Napa and Sonoma","description":"When acclaimed journalist Alan Deutschman came to the California wine country as the lucky house guest of very rich friends, he was surprised to discover a raging controversy. A civil war was being fought between the Napa Valley, which epitomized elitism, prestige and wealthy excess, and the neighboring Sonoma Valley, a rag-tag bohemian enclave so stubbornly backward that rambunctious chickens wandered freely through town. But the antics really began when new-money invaders began pushing out Sonoma's poets and painters to make way for luxury resorts and trophy houses that seemed a parody of opulence. \u003ci\u003eA Tale of Two Valleys\u003c\/i\u003e captures these stranger-than-fiction locales with the wit of a Tom Wolfe novel and uncorks the hilarious absurdities of life among the wine world's glitterati.\u003cbr\u003eDeutschman found that on the weekends the wine country was like a bunch of gracious hosts smiling upon their guests, but during the week the families feuded with each other and their neighbors like the Hatfields and McCoys. Napa was a comically exclusive club where the super-rich fought desperately to get in. Sonoma's colorful free spirits and iconoclasts were wary of their bohemia becoming the next playground for the rapacious elite. So, led by a former taxicab driver and wine-grape picker, a cheese merchant, and an artist who lived in a barn surrounded by wild peacocks, they formed a populist revolt to seize power and repel the rich invaders.\u003cbr\u003eDeutschman's cast of characters brims with eccentrics, egomaniacs, and a mysterious man in black who crashed the elegant Napa Valley Wine Auction before proceeding to pay a half-million dollars for a single bottle. What develops is nothing less than a battle for the good life, a clash between old and new, the struggle for the soul of one of America's last bits of paradise. A dishy glimpse behind the scenes of a West Coast wonderland, \u003ci\u003eA Tale of Two Valleys\u003c\/i\u003e makes for intoxicating reading.","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47097905742064,"sku":"2940169408683","price":14.13,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169408683_p0.jpg?v=1763681609","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169408683","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}