Good Things Come and Go

(Paperback)

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'With an expert eye for light and shadow, Shapiro traces the contours of sorrow, regret, and the luminous moments of bliss we hold close. Poignant, redemptive, electrifying.' - Catherine Chidgey

After the death of their young daughter, Penny Whittaker and Adam Riggs are struggling. Penny's lifelong dream of becoming a successful artist has stalled, and Riggs, battling an addiction to prescription painkillers, is coming to grips with the end of his glittering professional skateboarding career. When Penny is unexpectedly offered a chance to exhibit her work at an Auckland gallery, she accepts, despite her reservations.

At the same time, back in Auckland, Jamie Flannery suddenly finds himself out of work and out of options. To recuperate, he moves to his uncle's abandoned beach on the Coromandel, and when his childhood friend Riggs calls out the blue, the three friends reunite.

At first, being together feels just like old times. But secrets from their shared past threaten their newfound peace, forcing them to reckon with their history and themselves.

A novel about friendship and betrayal, ambition and grief, Good Things Come and Go is also a study of homecoming and heartbreak and an ode to the courage of taking risks no matter the consequences.

Author Bio

Josie Shapiro is the bestselling author of Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, which won the inaugural Allen & Unwin Fiction prize and was named one of the best books of 2023 by The Spinoff and the New Zealand Listener.

A graduate of the University of Auckland's Master of Creative Writing, Josie was a Sargeson Fellow in 2024. She lives in Tmaki Makaurau with her husband and two daughters.