Summary
A mortally funny debut novel of a mother’s love that defies all odds, including death.
Sandra dies unexpectedly at a conference in Nepal. Across the world in a desert in New Mexico, her teenage son, Trip, has run away from a centre for troubled youth.
But Sandra soon discovers that a mother’s work is never done, not even when you’re dead. It turns out limbo is a great place from which to keep an eye on your errant son. When Trip is picked up on the side of the road by a strang…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781787335943 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1787335941 |
| Author: | Amie Barrodale |
| Publisher: | Vintage Publishing |
| Imprint: | Jonathan Cape |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Number of Pages: | 304 |
| Release Date: | 10 February 2026 |
| Weight: | 284g |
| Dimensions: | 25mm x 134mm x 215mm |
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Critics Review
Raw and funny, yet graceful and astonishingly precise, Trip is a book with the power to resonate in the most intimate ways for any reader. I read it in awe, as if Barrodale had written it just for me – Ottessa Moshfegh
Beautifully crafted, hard-boiled fun. Trip is a good time – Nell Zink
Amie Barrodale’s Trip is an extraordinary novel. It is as if Kurt Vonnegut and Hunter S. Thompson have joined together to write a tender story of a recently dead mom who wanders the bardo but is always drawn back to her imperiled son, an autistic teenager who is on a boat with a stranger, lost at sea – Akhil Sharma
What a brilliant, funny, beautiful, f*cked-up, heart-smashing novel – Sam Lipsyte
Phenomenal and unpredictable, Trip is like nothing else I’ve read in a long time. I was hooked from the beginning and on the edge of my seat throughout. I loved this incredible novel – Ana Kinsella
Trip is an extraordinary novel. I’ve read nothing like it. It is crazy, wise, sensitive, funny, and terrifying — all those things put together so fluidly you can’t pick one apart from the other. Like all the best physical, chemical, emotional, and existential trips I’ve taken, this one blows the mind and shocks the heart – Christopher Bollen
Such a fun, surprising and interesting novel. I was captivated and charmed for its entirety; by the absurd humour at the death conference, by the main character’s scenes in the bardo – the crazy sexual interlude when she borrows the body of a dental patient on nitrous especially. I was moved, too, by Barrodale’s rendering of the complex emotions that come with a parent’s inevitable loss of control. – Adelaide Faith
The wild and quirky debut novel from Barrodale ranges across two continents and the afterlife to tell the story of a mother and son’s failure to connect … Trip’s adventure story is great fun, and Barrodale’s depiction of the afterlife is amusing and wonderfully surreal. It’s a hoot * Publishers Weekly *
Blending humor and Buddhism, Barrodale’s debut novel will resonate with fans of afterlife fiction * Booklist *
A rather unstoppable read … Barrodale is incredibly skillful at evoking a wide range of emotions in a limited span of pages. Though dark, the novel is packed with wit and humor, and comes to a surprising conclusion that will especially satisfy parents who have attempted to impart a life lesson to a child. Trip is as absurd, tender and moving as life itself * BookPage *
Amie Barrodale
Amie Barrodale is the author of the short story collection You Are Having a Good Time. She received the Plimpton Prize in 2012. A teaching-writing fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, she received the Maytag Fellowship from them in 2014. Her writing has appeared in Harper’s, The Paris Review and other publications. She is a former staff writer for The Onion and a former Fiction Editor at Vice.
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