Jessica M. Goldstein

Retro is a smart exploration of time travel in the Instagram age: a vividly imagined and gently satirical novel, with a keen eye for the ways nostalgia and commerce intertwine.

Hanna Bervoets, author of We Had To Remove This Post

Retro is a funny, punchy, delightful romp through American history, tourism, and the modern workplace. Goldstein’s eye for visceral detail shines as she incisively examines the nature of nostalgia. Existential but silly, heady but oh so juicy. To say what everyone else will say too: I want to travel back so I can read it again for the first time!

A magnetic read—equal parts charming, melancholy, and strange—perfect for those with sharp tongues but yearning hearts.

Retro is smart, funny, and delicious. If I could time-travel, I would go back and read it again for the first time

Alexandra Petri, writer for The Washington Post

Retro is so many things, all at once: delightful and disturbing; wildly speculative and chillingly realist; meticulously researched and intricately imagined; action-packed and profoundly engaged with questions of ethics, politics and philosophy; propelled through space (and, of course, time) by an engine of crackling cleverness and razor-sharp prose, but constantly retaining a Northstar of deep tenderness and genuine heart. This novel is a cri de couer, a wild adventure, a brilliant book.

Moriel Rothman-Zecher, author of Sadness Is a White Bird

Retro puts a fresh spin on the time-travel genre, blending the allure of times gone past with the absurdities of corporate work culture. Shrewd, witty and original.

Jessica M. Goldstein always has her finger on the pulse of pop culture, and she's adept at writing about it in perceptive and hilarious ways. And in her funny time-leaping novel, she doesn't miss a beat. Retro is worth your attention—no matter what timeline you're on.

Christopher Monks, Editor at McSweeney's Internet Tendency

Retro is so much fun! It’s got nostalgia, ennui, inappropriate workplace crushes, strange machines, jaunts to weird little bits of history, terrifying corporate overreach, and jokes: what more could you want?

A nuanced, biting cautionary tale about how not staying present can erase our very selves.

Retro is the kind of speculative novel that seems realer than reality. It provides a whip smart critique of influencer culture and the ultrawealthy, while being utterly readable and compelling. The end provides a twist that I never saw coming.

Full of curious characters and twist and turns, this fun read is escapism at its very best

Ash is a failed actress who is done trying to ‘make’ something of her life. Until a golden opportunity drops in her lap: a job at Retro, an agency who organise trips into the past for the ultra-wealthy. 
 
Energised by her new role, Ash throws herself into leading bachelorette parties in the Old West, birthday parties at Woodstock and a situationship with a hard-drinking detective from 1937. But as time goes on, it becomes clear that Retro’s shadowy founder Ro has terrifying designs for the company’s future – and for the part Ash herself can play in it.

Jessica M. Goldstein

Praise for Retro

Retro is a smart exploration of time travel in the Instagram age: a vividly imagined and gently satirical novel, with a keen eye for the ways nostalgia and commerce intertwine.

Retro is a funny, punchy, delightful romp through American history, tourism, and the modern workplace. Goldstein’s eye for visceral detail shines as she incisively examines the nature of nostalgia. ...

A magnetic read—equal parts charming, melancholy, and strange—perfect for those with sharp tongues but yearning hearts.

Retro is a smart exploration of time travel in the Instagram age: a vividly imagined and gently satirical novel, with a keen eye for the ways nostalgia and commerce intertwine.

Retro is a funny, punchy, delightful romp through American history, tourism, and the modern workplace. Goldstein’s eye for visceral detail shines as she incisively examines the nature of nostalgia. ...

A magnetic read—equal parts charming, melancholy, and strange—perfect for those with sharp tongues but yearning hearts.

Retro is a smart exploration of time travel in the Instagram age: a vividly imagined and gently satirical novel, with a keen eye for the ways nostalgia and commerce intertwine.

Retro is a funny, punchy, delightful romp through American history, tourism, and the modern workplace. Goldstein’s eye for visceral detail shines as she incisively examines the nature of nostalgia. ...

A magnetic read—equal parts charming, melancholy, and strange—perfect for those with sharp tongues but yearning hearts.

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