Trip: ‘The most important writer of my generation' Ottessa Moshfegh

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A mortally funny story of a mother's quest to save her son against all odds

Sandra dies unexpectedly at a conference in Nepal. Across the world in a desert in New Mexico, her teenage son, Trip, has run away from a centre for troubled youth.

But Sandra soon discovers that a mother’s work is never done, not even when you’re dead. It turns out limbo is a great place from which to keep an eye on your errant son. When Trip is picked up on the side of the road by a strange man, Sandra is the only one who knows where he is.

As Trip ventures further south towards the coast and directly into the eye of a hurricane, Sandra’s struggle to save him from the other realm begins.

From Florida’s Gulf Stream to the raging seas, through Munich-bound aeroplanes and from one body to another, Trip takes us on an absurd, profound and irresistibly entertaining odyssey - a story of childhood and motherhood, life and death, and everything in between.

'Transcendent and dazzlingly weird' New York Times

'Amie Barrodale is the most important writer of my generation' Ottessa Moshfegh

'Beautifully crafted, hard-boiled fun' Nell Zink

'I was captivated and charmed for its entirety' Adelaide Faith

'An extraordinary novel' Akhil Sharma

© Amie Barrodale 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026