Retro cover art

Retro

For fans of YESTERYEAR and FLEABAG
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Retro

By: Jessica M. Goldstein
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Summary

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

 Genre Fiction Humorous Mystery Political Science Fiction Time Travel Women Sleuths

Critic reviews

Retro is a smart exploration of time travel in the Instagram age: a vividly imagined and gently satirical novel, with a keen eye for the ways nostalgia and commerce intertwine.
Retro is a funny, punchy, delightful romp through American history, tourism, and the modern workplace. Goldstein’s eye for visceral detail shines as she incisively examines the nature of nostalgia. Existential but silly, heady but oh so juicy. To say what everyone else will say too: I want to travel back so I can read it again for the first time!
A magnetic read—equal parts charming, melancholy, and strange—perfect for those with sharp tongues but yearning hearts.
Retro is smart, funny, and delicious. If I could time-travel, I would go back and read it again for the first time
Retro is so many things, all at once: delightful and disturbing; wildly speculative and chillingly realist; meticulously researched and intricately imagined; action-packed and profoundly engaged with questions of ethics, politics and philosophy; propelled through space (and, of course, time) by an engine of crackling cleverness and razor-sharp prose, but constantly retaining a Northstar of deep tenderness and genuine heart. This novel is a cri de couer, a wild adventure, a brilliant book.
Retro puts a fresh spin on the time-travel genre, blending the allure of times gone past with the absurdities of corporate work culture. Shrewd, witty and original.
Jessica M. Goldstein always has her finger on the pulse of pop culture, and she's adept at writing about it in perceptive and hilarious ways. And in her funny time-leaping novel, she doesn't miss a beat. Retro is worth your attention—no matter what timeline you're on.
Retro is so much fun! It’s got nostalgia, ennui, inappropriate workplace crushes, strange machines, jaunts to weird little bits of history, terrifying corporate overreach, and jokes: what more could you want? (Holly Gramazio, author of The Husbands)
A nuanced, biting cautionary tale about how not staying present can erase our very selves.
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