In an unnamed city, a young woman deals with an unspeakable tragedy, and her boyfriend’s subsequent hospitalization. Torn from her normal routines—coffee, sex, barhopping, and disc golf—she finds herself in an unfamiliar world of hospital visits and doctor’s appointments, all while navigating an unexpected move to a new apartment and enduring the disapproval of her boyfriend’s mother, as well as the gossip of her friends and coworkers. (Plus the suspicious looks of strangers, and the unbearable strain on her credit card…and did we mention the gossip of her friends and coworkers?) Along the way, she meets every obstacle with…well, not grace, exactly. In fact, pretty much the opposite of grace. Maybe more like bitchiness, truth be told. And all the while, the aftereffects of the tragedy cast a pall over everything she does—and threaten to destroy everything she has.

Bristol Vaudrin’s fascinating debut novel is an engrossing and darkly comedic read with an unforgettable narrator/protagonist. Watching her struggles—real, imagined, and in-between—we too must choose between kindness and judgment, between condescension towards someone who simply doesn’t have a clue, and empathy with a person struggling to deal with something we all must face: the desire to hold on to the things we enjoy when the world around us changes in ways we didn’t expect.

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“Afterward is a perfectly titrated novel. In this taut, voice-driven, and viciously subversive debut, Bristol Vaudrin proves herself a master of withholding, cleverly navigating the chasm between said and unsaid as she exposes the underside of humanity at its most self-absorbed. A terrific debut!”

— Sara Lippmann, author of Jerks and Lech

“Bristol Vaudrin's Afterward describes contemporary work and social life in lyrical, almost anthropological, detail, but the suicide attempt that sets the novel in motion suffuses it with dread and forces a reckoning with the way we live now. The combination of emotional intensity and dry humor evokes European writers like Elena Ferrante and Fleur Jaeggy, but the void Vaudrin stares down, and even comes to terms with, is unmistakably American. A powerful meditation on grief that isn't afraid to make you laugh amid the pain.”

— Christian TeBordo, author of Ghost Engine and The Apology

"Bristol Vaudrin's debut is a marvel that pulls the reader along with sophisticated sentences that manage to be both haunting and hilarious. Afterward will keep you stunned from its first page."

— Avner Landes, author of Meiselman