Book description
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 Colshares is plucked from her too-tame existence…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Goodbye Without Leaving as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Laurie Colwin is by far my favorite fiction writer. She died in 1992 at the age of 48, and Goodbye Without Leaving is one of my all-time favorite books of hers.
In it, Geraldine Coleshares—a privileged graduate student who is unmoved by her insulated and expectation-laden world—goes on the road as backup singer for Ruby Shakely and the Shakettes—an Ike and Tina Turner-type rock and roll band.
Her parents are horrified and will barely speak to her when she calls them from the road, but there’s nothing she loves more than to stand on stage in a day-glow fringed dress,…
From Joanneh's list on sensual fiction (that doesn’t leave out the good stuff).
Moving away from children's and YA literature, Laurie Colwin's Goodbye Without Leaving nonetheless feels like a transitional book to me. When I first discovered Colwin's work, I was in my early twenties and even though most of her books had been written several years before "my time," I felt like she got me like few writers did. The anguish, desires and self-awareness plaguing her characters always felt true and achingly relatable. In Goodbye Without Leaving, Colwin tells the story of Geraldine, who gets hired as a backup singer for a touring band and is led to reflect on what…
From Fanny's list on music-loving readers in your family.
If you love Goodbye Without Leaving...
The Rosewood Penny
2023 Queer Indie Award Nominee!
The dragons of Yuro have been hunted to extinction.
On a small, isolated island, in a reclusive forest, lives bandit leader Marani and her brother Jacks. With their outlaw band they rob from the rich to feed themselves, raiding carriages and dodging the occasional vindictive…
Want books like Goodbye Without Leaving?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Goodbye Without Leaving.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,343
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like Goodbye Without Leaving, you might also like...
Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman
Kate from Jules et Jim meets I Love Dick.
A young woman filmmaker’s journey of self-discovery, set against a backdrop of the sexual liberation movement of the 1970s and 1980s. In Portrait of an Artist as a Young Woman, we follow Ana Fried as she faces the ultimate…
Malcolm Before X
Malcolm Before X is about finding a way to continue moving forward after everything has been taken from you. While in prison, Malcolm Little discovered the power of reading and found a way to transform his character and become a better man. This half-biography focuses on that transformation, especially his…
