Post-Traumatic
By Chantal V. Johnson

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. Readingand Post-Traumaticand feels like an illicit thrill.' Dawnie Walton, author ofand The Final Revival of Opal andamp; NevCan Vivian find happiness after what has been done to her?To the outside observer,and Vivianand 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,and 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,and Post-Traumaticand is a new kind of survivor narrative, featuring a complex heroine who is blazingly, indelibly alive. Readers who lovedand Open Water,and A Little Lifeand orand Lusterand 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 aboutand Post-Traumatic:'Deeply original, socially important, psychologically revelatory,and propulsivelyand and idiosyncratically readable.and Post-Traumaticand isand a gem.' Elif Batuman, author ofand The Idiot'Stunning and riotous,and Post-Traumaticand took me right under and then revived me, like only the best fiction can do. Johnson's delicious, meticulous prose delivers suchand intimacy and hilarity on the page, I laughed and cried all the way through. This is a raw, brilliant, and unforgettable debut.and I love everything about it!' Deesha Philyaw, author ofand The Secret Lives of Church Ladies'Chantal V. Johnson hasand blessedand us with aand cool, stylish, and violently funnyand novel about survival. Itand made me smile, laugh, cringe, shiver, and think. Like life,and Post-Traumaticand is richly triggering andand highly recommended.' Myriam Gurba, author ofand Mean'Post-Traumaticand is swift, caustic,and charismatic,and beautiful, terrifying, andand so incredibly funny. It learns and unlearns itself continually, propelled by a restless main character whose gaze withers the world, the reader, and more achingly, herself. Johnson composes such precise,and pathologically consumable prose that I couldn't stop reading, even if it was the way I'd watch a scary movie: through my fingers.' Tommy Pico, author ofand IRLand andand Junk