Goodbye for Now: A Novel
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Goodbye for Now: A Novel Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Laurie Frankel (Author), Kirby Heyborne (Narrator), Random House Audio (Publisher)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 936 ratings
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In the spirit of One Day, comes a fresh and warmhearted love story for the 21st century.

Sometimes the end is just the beginning....

Sam Elling works for an internet dating company, but he still can't get a date. So he creates an algorithm that will match you with your soul mate. Sam meets the love of his life, a coworker named Meredith, but he also gets fired when the company starts losing all their customers to Mr. and Ms. Right.

When Meredith's grandmother, Livvie, dies suddenly, Sam uses his ample free time to create a computer program that will allow Meredith to have one last conversation with her grandmother. Mining from all her correspondence - email, Facebook, Skype, texts - Sam constructs a computer simulation of Livvie who can respond to email or video chat just as if she were still alive. It's not supernatural; it's computer science.

Meredith loves it, and the couple begins to wonder if this is something that could help more people through their grief. And thus, the company RePose is born. The business takes off, but for every person who just wants to say good-bye, there is someone who can't let go.

In the meantime, Sam and Meredith's affection for each other deepens into the kind of love that once tasted, you can't live without. But what if one of them suddenly had to?

This entertaining novel delivers a charming and bittersweet romance, as well as a lump in the throat exploration of the nature of love, loss, and life (both real and computer simulated).

Maybe nothing was meant to last forever, but then again, sometimes love takes on a life of its own.

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  1. Listening Length
    11 hours and 54 minutes
  2. Author
    Laurie Frankel
  3. Narrator
    Kirby Heyborne
  4. Audible release date
    August 7, 2012
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Random House Audio
  7. ASIN
    B008U2OYXE
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 11 hours and 54 minutes
Author Laurie Frankel
Narrator Kirby Heyborne
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date August 07, 2012
Publisher Random House Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B008U2OYXE
Best Sellers Rank #188,307 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#3,508 in Family Life Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#13,156 in Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#13,463 in Family Life Fiction (Books)

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
936 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lary Hess
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2012
Verified Purchase
I started to read this book on a plane. As soon as I landed, I went home and threw myself down on my couch and read the rest of it! Heck, I even read some in the cab on the way home from the airport. For me, this is the sheer definition of a page turner. From start to finish, I found myself pushing to read faster, so that I could find out what happens!

Beyond the book itself, the content really makes you think a bit. If the technology were possible to allow you to communicate to loved ones who passed on, would you? C'mon, you know deep down that the simple curiosity of it all would be hard to resist.

In the end, this book has a bit for everyone. An outstanding love story, some very cool computer geek concepts, maybe a little sci fi (for lack of a better term) and of course a ton of laughs and some tears.

This is the summer book to read on vacation or by the pool!

Plus, the rights have been purchased to make this a movie!
2 people found this helpful
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Judy
4.0 out of 5 stars Sticks with you
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2014
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In last week’s blog I talked about the power of the novel to carry us into other lives and change our perspective on our own. I also talked about my own preference for characters confronting the crises of contemporary life. Laurie Frankel’s novel, Goodbye For Now, is an excellent example of both. You will be uplifted and carried along by her quick sharp humor through an insightful exploration of love, loss, and the power of the virtual world.

Laurie Frankel’s Seattle software engineer, Sam, works for an on-line dating company. A self-derisive geek who fears he will never find true love, Sam has little faith in the forms clients fill out, for people lie about themselves—lie to themselves, in fact. When ordered to find an algorithm for love, Sam, wiser than he thinks he is, develops a way to measure what people say against what they do. To his amazement, the algorithm takes him to Meredith—his long sought soul mate.

Enchanted by his own brilliance and deeply in love, Sam’s life is transformed, and when Meredith’s much-loved grandmother, Livie, dies, he is lured into far deeper waters. He develops an algorithm that creates a virtual Livie, thus relieving Meredith’s grief. To everyone’s amazement, it works.

Together, Meredith and Sam launch, with great success, an on-line medium service that allows clients to talk with their dearly departed. The twists, turns, and unintended consequences of this venture carry us (and their clients) further and further into the world of the virtual and its inevitable clashes with reality. But when tragedy strikes Sam, himself, the distinction between virtual and real (Sam and Not Sam) become blurred and frightening—for Sam and the reader alike. We almost despair before Sam is jolted back into reality, and he returns changed.

Laurie Frankel begins this story as comedy and sustains the humor throughout this story of a technological experiment—humor that carries the real world of tragedies, the serious questions about loss, the portrayal of a culture that believes in avoiding pain at all cost, and the heartfelt exploration of human engagement and love along with it. It is a magical mix as well as a very credible study in the power of the virtual. Though the story seems told as a game sometimes (appropriately), it sticks with you as far more.
5 people found this helpful
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Leslie Gerkens
3.0 out of 5 stars Too Light to be Deep, Too Deep to be Light
Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2013
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Laurie Frankel is a good writer. I bought and read `Atlas of Love' and enjoyed it. I especially enjoyed that, in that novel, her characters were flawed and "real". One character in `The Atlas of Love' was so unlikeable she actually raised my blood pressure and made me want to find her and slap her silly. It was fabulous to be so provoked by a fictional character! Unfortunately, I did not find any characters to be so compelling in `Goodbye for Now'. All the characters were too "good". Dash, to me the most promising and potentially entertaining character, was ultimately a disappointment. Instead of allowing him to develop into an actual individual, he was relegated to cheese making (!?!?). I think Ms Frankel allowed the high concept of the novel to take all her attention. She did an excellent job making "Re-Pose" seem plausible--but apart from one widow who had an ultimately understandable but surprising agenda for wanting to video chat with her deceased loved one--there seemed to be no one--living or dead--interesting enough to want to re-pose with. What frustrates me most is that it is an ingenious concept for a novel. I feel like if she had had less going on (I won't be specific so as to avoid spoilers) she could have explored more deeply the characters involved--their inevitable flaws, foibles, etc--as well as their reaction to loss and re-pose. Love, death, life, sadness, all of this is touched on, even sometimes lingered on, but not truly explored in any reality based depth. Laurie Frankel is a good writer, and I can imagine many people loving this novel and feeling satisfied with it. I am just not one of those people. I will read her next novel, however, and with high hopes!
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

lynn yexley
5.0 out of 5 stars Kept me interested all the way.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 21, 2020
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I really enjoyed this book, story kept me interested.
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Nikki A.
5.0 out of 5 stars great concept.. kept me thinking
Reviewed in Australia on January 18, 2024
Verified Purchase
Likeable characters, easy to follow events and the story line is very interesting. Maybe one day AI will allow us to speak to those who have passed.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, tragic, inventive
Reviewed in Australia on March 12, 2020
Verified Purchase
This book will stay with me for a long time. I was fascinated by the story, the technology, and charmed by the delightful characters. It gave me much food for thought and discussion and I have recommended it to all if my reader friends.
Keep writing Laurie! (I also loved That’s the Way...)
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Mrs. Bryony A. Shaw
4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2012
Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )
A well written book with a very interesting idea at the centre. The first few chapters seem a little rushed - providing a background really as to what is to come - but once I got into the book it was hard to put down. It raises interesting moral questions and is also engrossing and entertaining, with a little bit romance thrown in!

I agree with previous reviewers that the back of the book gave too much away about the plot. I was waiting for the 'twist' (I predicted some supernatural aspect or Artificial intelligence gaining its own will) but none actually came.
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happybooks
3.0 out of 5 stars A good beginning possibly only worth two and a half stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2012
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The premise for this book was unusual and in these technologically advancing times not beyond credibility. A computer geek writes software which enables living people to "converse" with their dead loved ones via e-mail and video. He does this in order that his girlfriend can "speak" to her recently deceased grandmother. For the first half or so of the book I was fairly engaged by the storyline and the characters but thereafter ennui set in. I found the last part of the story contrived and lost any empathy for the main character. I would have been happy enough to spend 99p on this book but at £6.99 for the Kindle version I wouldn't bother.
One person found this helpful
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