Description

‘Feral’ Jenny Offill, author of Weather
‘Horny’ Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl
‘Hilarious’ Chelsea Bieker, author of Mad Woman

The trip was supposed to be fun.

When Kit’s best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, he begs her to ditch her family responsibilities for a quick, idyllic weekend away. They’ll soak in hot springs, then drink too much, like old times. Instead, their getaway only reminds Kit of everything she’s lost lately: her wildness, her independence and – most heartbreakingly of all – her sister, Julie, who died a few years ago.

When she returns home, Kit tries to settle the routine of caring for her irrepressible young daughter. But in the secret recesses of Kit’s mind, she’s fantasizing about the hot playground mum and reminiscing about the band she used to be in with her sister – and how they’d go out to the desert after shows and drop acid.

Keyed into everything that might distract her from her surfacing grief, Kit begins to spiral, and as her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasty blur, she starts to wonder: is Julie really gone?

Publisher Review

A wrenchingly honest novel, full of dark wit and feral delight, about a new mother navigating the trippy, uncharted wilderness between love and grief * Jenny Offill, author of Weather * With psychological perspicuity and psychedelic inventiveness, Kimberly King Parsons reveals the shapeshifting nature of grief, the wiliness of desire, the fluidity of linear time, and the truth that what begs to be felt will always find a way to be felt. * Melissa Broder, author of Death Valley * To read Kimberly King Parsons is to fall in love with the world and all its absurdities. We Were the Universe is horny, wickedly funny, brutal in its exploration of motherhood and loss, the difficulty of keeping yourself from living in the past. At its core though, Parsons’ debut is achingly tender, beautiful and comforting in its assertion that coming of age is a lifelong process. * Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl * Sexy, exuberant, hilarious, and deep, We Were the Universe is a page-turning voyage into the churning waters of early motherhood and lurking grief. Utterly breathtaking to the final moment. * Chelsea Bieker, author of Godshot * We Were the Universe is a grief-and-lust-and-breastmilk saturated psychedelic journey, a story told in the eternal present of an acid trip and the spiralling everyday life of a young Texan mother, pushing her daughter’s stroller around an unspeakable loss. This novel is a tonal masterpiece, a record I want to spin forever, and I feel so lucky that I can return to its deep magic. * Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! *