Post-Traumatic

By: Chantal V. Johnson

Narrated by: Tiffany Smith

Can 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. Listeners 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.

©2022 Chantal V. Johnson (P)2022 Hachette Audio UK

Critic reviews

"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)

"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 & Nev)