'Vivian is one of the most fascinating characters I've read in contemporary fiction: self-aware and lost, cutting and wounded, resilient and vulnerable - all those misfit bits that add up to the whole of a real human being. Reading Post-Traumatic feels like an illicit thrill.' Dawnie Walton, author of The Final Revival of Opal & NevCan Vivian find happiness after what has been done to her?To the outside observer,
Vivian is a success story - a dedicated lawyer who advocates for mentally ill patients at a psychiatric hospital. Privately, Vivian contends with the memories and after-effects of her bad childhood, compounded by the everyday stresses of being a Black, Latinx woman living in a white society. She lives in a constant state of hypervigilant awareness that makes even a simple train ride a heart-pounding drama.
For years, Vivian has self-medicated with a mix of dating, dieting, dark humour and smoking weed with her best friend,
Jane. But after a family reunion prompts Vivian to take a bold step, she finds herself alone in new and terrifying ways, without even Jane to confide in, and she starts to unravel.
Will she find a way to repair what matters most to her?A debut from a stunning talent,
Post-Traumatic is a new kind of survivor narrative, featuring a complex heroine who is blazingly, indelibly alive. Readers who loved
Open Water,
A Little Life or
Luster will adore this razor-sharp book about the aftermath of trauma that somehow manages to brim with warmth, laughter, and hope.
What people are saying about Post-Traumatic:'
Deeply original, socially important, psychologically revelatory,
propulsively and idiosyncratically readable.
Post-Traumatic is
a gem.' Elif Batuman, author of
The Idiot'
Stunning and riotous,
Post-Traumatic took me right under and then revived me, like only the best fiction can do. Johnson's delicious, meticulous prose delivers such
intimacy and hilarity on the page, I laughed and cried all the way through. This is a raw, brilliant, and unforgettable debut.
I love everything about it!' Deesha Philyaw, author of
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies'Chantal V. Johnson has
blessed us with a
cool, stylish, and violently funny novel about survival. It
made me smile, laugh, cringe, shiver, and think. Like life,
Post-Traumatic is richly triggering and
highly recommended.' Myriam Gurba, author of
Mean'Post-Traumatic is swift, caustic,
charismatic,
beautiful, terrifying, and
so incredibly funny. It learns and unlearns
Sign In / Register
