As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back Audiobook By Alle C. Hall cover art

As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back

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As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back

By: Alle C. Hall
Narrated by: Melinda Cumming
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About this listen

Recipient of fifteen prizes and honors, As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back is a girl-and-her-backpack story with a #MeToo framing set in S.E. Asia and Japan in the late 1980s.

Carlie is not merely traveling. A child trauma survivor as a teen, she steals ten thousand dollars and runs away to Asia. Through Hong Kong, The Philippines, Bali, and Thailand, the Lonely Planet path of hookups, heat, alcohol, and drugs takes on a terrifying reality for the young survivor. Trading sex for protection, Carlie retreats to alcohol and self-starvation.

Finally, on the tiny island of oh Phangan, Thailand-home to the infamous Full Moon party-Carlie falls in with an international crew of Tai chi-practicing backpackers.

Landing in Tokyo, Carlie has the chance at a journey she did not plan for: to find the self-respect ripped from her as a child and the healthy sexuality she desires.

©2023 Black Rose Writing (P)2023 Black Rose Writing
Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

Critic reviews

"Sheer effortlessness, despite touching on the most harrowing life experiences. Displays a finesse rarely seen in a graphically written trauma narrative. " -Book Viral

"Alle C. Hall may never know how many people she will help with this novel." -Joyce, June and Paula Kavanaugh, founders of Ireland's Count Me In! Survivors of Sexual Abuse Standing Together for Change

"A rare novel that shows how easily childhood trauma can be internalized and normalized, distorting our coming-of-age. Hall puts us inside that headspace then walks us through a maze of globe-trotting dissociation to a better, more hopeful place. An outstanding debut." -Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy

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I wanted to LOVE this book, but it was a struggle from the beginning. I kept hoping it would wow me, but unfortunately it fell flat.

Good narrator- story didn’t do it for me

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