Winner of the 2022 AWP Kurt Brown Prize in Creative Nonfiction
Terms & Conditions
When a 46-year-old hypervigilant anthropologist finds out she has a genetic mutation that means she is at risk of developing the same cancer that killed her father at 48, she must put her grief and anxiety over his death and her emotionally precarious childhood to rest or risk losing her sanity, her husband, and her carefully ordered life.
Advance Praise
“I've never experienced a book quite like this, a memoir of sorts told through a hybrid of moments, memories, and artifacts.”
— Jeff Bogle, Author of Street Cats & Where to Find Them and Publisher at Stanchion
“Expertly maps the terrain between inheritance and escape, moving from the clinical language of genetic mutation to the intimate vocabulary of family trauma. Succinct and devastating, each entry is a meditation on love, loss, and what it means to survive.”
— Darien Hsu Gee, Award-winning Author of Allegiance and Other Small Histories
“A formally adventurous, intensely compelling addition to the genre of grief memoir. A methodical yet emotional meditation on what it means to lose a father at the cusp of one’s own adulthood, Terms & Conditions introduces us to a narrator for whom the quest for information—sturdy, static and quantifiable—means self-preservation and control. The elegant restraint of Goldmacher’s prose keeps the reader rapt and vigilant.”
— Sheila Squillante, Author of All Things Edible, Random and Odd: Essays on Grief, Love and Food
“Sharply captures the unease and uncertainty of our health and heredity. With startling honesty, Goldmacher offers a glossary both personal and universal—an affecting, emotional story.”
— Dinty W. Moore, Author of Between Panic & Desire
“In this innovative memoir, Goldmacher wrestles with the tension between facts and experiences, scientific inquiry and emotional responses. A vulnerable, funny (yes, funny!) memoir about anxiety, grief, and finding a place to call home that can't be reached through maps, coordinates, or formulas.”
— Laraine Herring, Author of A Constellation of Ghosts: A Speculative Memoir with Ravens
My Other Books
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Designing An Anthropology Career
Tools to identify your professional goals and follow through on them.
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Record: A Journal
For writers, travelers, and those who think they aren’t good at journaling.
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Anxiety Book In Progress
Anxiety is a signal to recognize, not a flaw to eliminate.
