Goodbye Without Leaving : A Novel

?Poignant and hilarious . . . . Irresistible.? ? Washington Post

One of the most beloved novels from the critically acclaimed novelist Laurie Colwin, Goodbye Without Leaving explores a woman?s attempts to reconcile her rock-and-roll past with her significantly more sedate family life as a wife and mother.

As a bored graduate student, Geraldine Coleshares is plucked from her too-tame existence when she is invited to tour as the only white backup singer for Vernon and Ruby Shakely and the Shakettes. The exciting years she spends as a Shakette are a mixed blessing, however, because when she ultimately submits to a conventional life of marriage and children, she finds herself stuck in bittersweet recollections of life on the road. As she grudgingly searches for a path toward happiness that doesn''t involve a Day-Glo neon minidress, readers will be enchanted by Geraldine?s attempts to grow up, even though she?s already an adult.

Employing Colwin?s usual dry wit and candor, Goodbye Without Leaving is a classic novel from the writer hailed as ?ingenious, comic, and spirited? by the Boston Globe and ?a writer of originality and vision" by the San Francisco Chronicle.