Critics' Opinion:
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Published Jul 2017
208 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Her life at a crossroads, a young woman goes home again in this funny and inescapably moving debut from a wonderfully original new literary voice.
Freshly disengaged from her fiancé and feeling that life has not turned out quite the way she planned, thirty-year-old Ruth quits her job, leaves town and arrives at her parents' home to find that situation more complicated than she'd realized. Her father, a prominent history professor, is losing his memory and is only erratically lucid. Ruth's mother, meanwhile, is lucidly erratic. But as Ruth's father's condition intensifies, the comedy in her situation takes hold, gently transforming her all her grief.
Told in captivating glimpses and drawn from a deep well of insight, humor, and unexpected tenderness, Goodbye, Vitamin pilots through the loss, love, and absurdity of finding one's footing in this life.
"Starred Review. Khong writes heartbreaking family drama with charm, perfect prose, and deadpan humor." - Booklist
"Khong's pithy observations and cynical humor round out a moving story that sparks empathy where you'd least expect it." - Kirkus
"Tragic and funny." - Entertainment Weekly, 23 Most Anticipated Books of 2017
"A good mix of humor and love." - Elle
"Khong is a magician, and we are lucky to fall under her spell at the very beginning of her brilliant writing life." - Lauren Groff
"This novel sneaks up on you - just like life ... and heartbreak. And love." - Miranda July
This information about Goodbye, Vitamin was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Rachel Khong grew up in Southern California, and holds degrees from Yale University and the University of Florida. From 2011 to 2016, she was the managing editor then executive editor of Lucky Peach magazine. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Joyland, American Short Fiction, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Believer, and California Sunday. She lives in San Francisco. Goodbye, Vitamin is her first novel.
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