Rex Pickett

• Biography

  Rex Pickett is the critically acclaimed author of the novel Sideways, which was adapted into the iconic film of the same title. Sideways was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning for Best Adapted Screenplay, among 350 other plaudits. Pickett is the author of three Sideways sequels—the IPPY Gold Medal–winning Sideways Oregon (previously published as Vertical), Sideways Chile, and now Sideways New Zealand. He is also the author of The Archivist. Pickett is currently working on a post–Sideways New Zealand trilogy. A Southern California native, the Rex Pickett Papers are currently enshrined at Geisel Library on the campus of his alma mater, the University of California San Diego.

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• Praise for Books

  “Sideways is one of those rarest of books: a story that became an instant hit and cult classic, with character journeys that resonated with the zeitgeist and remain poignant today.” —James Phelan, author of Patriot Act

  “Sideways in many ways is a genre breaker. What made it special is there was nothing like it before. Yes, it is picaresque and ribald, bursting with outrageousness and side-splitting humor, but at its core this very special novel possesses sweetness, wisdom, and most important, heart. I knew when I read it in manuscript form it would be a foundation for a great movie. Little did I realize it would grow into becoming a timeless classic, not just in the wine world, but in the annals of cinema as well.” —Angelo Pizzo, screenwriter of Hoosiers and Rudy

  “It’s about time Rex Pickett’s Sideways is in hardcover. This funny, insightful, beautifully written, iconic book has delighted millions in its various incarnations as a novel, movie, play, and musical, and singlehandedly created an awareness for Pinot Noir that propelled that varietal to the forefront of American wines. But that notwithstanding, the true genius of the book is Pickett’s writing and characters—clever, heartfelt, relatable, and totally enjoyable. If you’ve never read Sideways, you don’t know what you’re missing. It is as much a treat for your mind and mood as Pinot Noir is for your palate.”  —Rick Bleiweiss, award-winning, bestselling author & Grammy-nominated record producer

  “This republication in hardcover of Rex Pickett’s now famous first novel Sideways is indeed a cause for lifting a glass of the finest Pinot Noir in celebration. At once raucously funny, cringingly audacious, and acutely perceptive about male insecurities and midlife confusion, the book covers a wild week in California wine country where two guys go in search of wine, women, and that final song before life gets its grips on them. There is also a surprising amount of astute wine criticism layered into the dramatic roller coaster of events.” —Kirk Honeycutt, former chief film critic, the Hollywood Reporter

  “A lively debut…Pickett takes his readers on a jolly ride.” —Publishers Weekly

  “A buddy novel in the cinematic vein of Swingers…Pickett plays the sex-and-the-single-man angle for all it’s worth here…like Dharma Bums updated with metrosexual panache.” —Booklist

  “Seldom—if ever—does a wine book break out of its niche to reach a worldwide audience. Sideways did, and then some. How? Why? Because it is more than simply a weeklong bibulous romp through California wine country. There’s a deeply human story here too that everybody, wine lover or not, can relate to. Bravo, Rex Pickett. Bravo!” —Raymond Blake, author of Côte d’Or and two-time Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards finalist 

  “Skillful work about a friendship between two ultimately likable guys.” —Kirkus Reviews

  “By giving his narrator and chief protagonist a distinctive voice, Pickett immerses us in both the world of fine-wine appreciation and the intellectually and emotionally damaged world of its central character…Sideways delivers laughs, moments of real sadness, and insight, not to mention a cracking plot, witty dialogue, and bags of well-crafted entertainment.” —Paul Spalding-Mulcock, Yorkshire Times

  “Forget the film and get lost in Rex Pickett’s writing, which reads like John Kennedy Toole inhabited by the ghost of Falstaff. Sideways is a meditation on loneliness disguised as a rollicking yarn, and a hero’s journey in which wine is both the temptress and the trial.” —Katherine Cole, author of Voodoo Vintners and executive producer and host of The Four Top podcast

  “I’ll never forget reading the manuscript for Sideways in a single sitting aboard an airplane. A confessional novel, it astonished me with its honesty, humor, and pathos in a setting as seductive as it gets. Upon landing, I sprinted to a pay phone to tell the right parties about the astonishing novel I’d just read—the novel that was to change my life.” —Alexander Payne, Oscar-winning director/cowriter of Sideways

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  • Sideways New Zealand

  • By Rex Pickett

    Introduction by David W. Brown

    Read by Scott Brick

  • Release Date: 1/30/24

  • Formats: Hardcover, Trade Paperback

  From bestselling author Rex Pickett comes Sideways New Zealand, the next delightfully dark and funny novel in the Sideways series.

  Miles Raymond thought things were going relatively well.

  Miles, the now iconic alter ego of author Rex Pickett—who was first introduced in the critically acclaimed book Sideways and its award-winning movie adaptation—resurfaces on the South Island of New Zealand. All he has in life is a half hectare of Pinot Noir, a guest cottage where his days are numbered, a special needs cat named Max, and a winemaker partner pressing him for a more committed relationship.

  These modest assets are balanced by the impending publication of Miles’s new novel, A Year of Pure Feeling. His fledgling publicist has arranged for a book tour that will take Miles along the east coast of New Zealand, from Oamaru to Auckland, to a series of increasingly interesting Kiwi book clubs. In a six-ton camper van! In the winter!

  Jack Manse, after a divorce and a financial disaster, has reinvented himself and gleefully volunteers to copilot, too delighted at the prospect of a road trip and a reunion with Miles to heed his friend’s objections.

  Alternately blackly comical and poignantly heartbreaking, what started as a book tour through New Zealand becomes a journey through Miles’s soul.

  • Sideways New Zealand

  • By Rex Pickett

    Introduction by David W. Brown

    Read by Scott Brick

  • Release Date: 1/30/24

  • Formats: Hardcover, Trade Paperback

  Learn More
• 

  • Sideways

  • By Rex Pickett

  • Release Date: 3/07/23

  • Formats: Hardcover, Large Print Hardcover, Signed Hardcover, Trade Paperback

  The book that inspired the film of the same name, staring Paul Giamatti, Sideways is a beautifully crafted buddy novel full of “witty dialogue, and bags of well-crafted entertainment” (Yorkshire Times).

  Sideways is the story of two friends—Miles and Jack—going away together for the last time to steep themselves in everything that makes it good to be young and single: Pinot, putting, and prowling bars. In the week before Jack plans to marry, the pair heads out from Los Angeles to the Santa Ynez Valley wine country. For Jack, the tasting tour is Seven Days to D-Day, his final stretch of freedom. For Miles—who has divorced his wife, is facing an uncertain career, and has lost his passion for living—the trip is a weeklong opportunity to evaluate his past, his future, and himself.

  A raucous and surprising novel filled with wonderful details about wine, Sideways is also a thought-provoking and funny book about men, women, and human relationships.

  • Sideways

  • By Rex Pickett

  • Release Date: 3/07/23

  • Formats: Hardcover, Large Print Hardcover, Signed Hardcover, Trade Paperback

  Learn More

Coming Soon

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