Vertical: A Novel

The follow-up novel to the blockbuster Sideways, the basis of a major motion picture, tracks the continuing story of Miles Raymond and his buddy Jack.

It's seven years later. Miles has written a novel that has been made into a wildly successful movie, and the movie has changed his life. Jack, contrarily, is divorced, has a kid, and is on the skids. Phyllis, Miles' mom, has suffered a stroke that's left her wheelchair-bound and wasting away in assisted living. She desperately wants to live with her sister in Wisconsin.

When Miles gets invited to be master of ceremonies at the International Pinot Festival in Oregon, he hatches a harebrained road trip. With Jack as his copilot, he leases a handicapped-equipped van, hires a pot-smoking Filipina caretaker, and, with his mother's rascally Yorkie in tow, they take off for Wisconsin via Oregon's fabled Willamette Valley.

This is a road novel for the smart set and wine lover, and it is anything but predictable.