Retro

THE ZEITGEISTY TIME TRAVEL DEBUT WITH A TWIST

EVER WANTED TO TRAVEL INTO THE PAST? WELL NOW YOU CAN!*
*exclusions and exorbitant fees apply.
Ash is a failed actress who is done trying to ‘make’ something of her life when she scrolls past an ad for Retro. The algorithm thinks she can afford recreational time travel? Then she sees the caption: Come away with us! We’re hiring.
Time Travel Agents, the guides who lead ultra-wealthy explorers on trips to the past on the ‘Retro Metro’, must blend seamlessly into any historical period. Ash is a perfect fit. She’s an actress after all. Or at least she used to be.
So begins Ash’s life at Retro, chaperoning rich tourists through history’s most Instagrammable eras. She wrangles bachelorette parties chasing hunky cowboys in the Old West, throws ‘'20s for your twenties’ birthday bashes at speakeasies, and rolls her eyes at Wall Street men trying their luck in the Gold Rush.
For the first time in years, Ash’s life feels enviable. She barely notices the strange glitches in her memory or the way her present-day relationships are starting to slip.
But as the trips intensify and her present begins to fray, Ash confronts an unsettling question: Was diving into the past ever really an escape, or just another way to lose herself?
'I want to travel back so I can read it again for the first time!' Casey Scieszka, author of The Fountain

'So much fun!' Holly Gramazio, author of The Husbands
'A magnetic read—equal parts charming, melancholy, and strange—perfect for those with sharp tongues but yearning hearts.' Emily Hunt Kivel, author of Dwelling
'Shrewd, witty and original' Aisling Rawle, author of The Compound

© Jessica M. Goldstein 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026