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Ruby Lang
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The Art of Losing: A Novella Kindle Edition

by Ruby Lang (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 13 ratings
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Gia Franchetti is being haunted by her adoptive father who died disappointed with his life—and Gia’s. To make sure she doesn’t look back with the same regrets, Gia makes plans to move from her hometown, Boston, to China, her country of origin, to learn more about herself and her background.

But while following her father’s ghost, Gia meets musician Cal Webb. Cal is gorgeous, sweet, and has his life (and piano) planted firmly in Boston. The two fall recklessly into a relationship knowing there is an expiration date. As the unlikely couple draws closer, Gia starts to wonder if she’s chasing one dream only to abandon the possibility of love.

Content warning: This novella deals with grief, death, and cancer. It also depicts on-page sex, alcohol use, and complicated family dynamics.

The Art of Losing is a standalone novella of 41,000 words.

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  1. Print length
    156 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publication date
    March 31, 2023
  5. File size
    1069 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  9. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BVN7P7TX
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ruby Lang; 1st edition (March 31, 2023)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 31, 2023
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 1069 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 156 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 173887401X
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 13 ratings

About the author

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Ruby Lang

Ruby Lang

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Ruby Lang writes warm, witty contemporary romance and featuring emotionally complex multicultural characters and their rambunctious families. Ruby's work has been featured in NPR, Buzzfeed, and O, The Oprah Magazine. As Opal Wei, she is the author of the upcoming screwball rom-com Bring It. She also wrote about romance novels for The Toast and was a 2010 fiction fellow for the New York Foundation for the Arts. Her non-fiction has also appeared in The New York Times, The Walrus, and Bitch. She enjoys running (slowly), reading (quickly), and ice cream (at any speed). She and her family are recent transplants to Toronto.

Find her at www.rubylangwrites.com, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RubyLangWrites/ and on Instagram at @ruby.lang.

Or sign up for her newsletter at http://eepurl.com/c-14F1

Photo credit: Trina Turl Photography

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
13 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

kkvvue
5.0 out of 5 stars A story of grief and moving on, a great read
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2023
Verified Purchase
**I received a copy of the book from the author. I voluntarily read and reviewed it. All my opinions are my own.**

Gia is still grappling with the death of her adoptive father, which pushes her to make the decision to move to China to learn more about where was born and possibly about herself. As she is trying to make this transition, she also finds herself falling for Cal, the stranger she comes across while chasing her father's ghost.

The Art of Losing is a tale of grief but also one of moving forward. I easily connected with Gia, and the first few pages made me teary. I understood why she saw her father in practically everything and why her father's death forced to move to move to China. It's pivotal moments like this that can lead us to reexamine our lives.

Because Gia and Cal fall for each other so quickly, it could be viewed as instalove, but it never feels that way. Their interactions are more than just surface level, and I kept wondering where the end would lead them.
The book made me feel so many things, including wishing it was longer. I was not ready for this one to end.
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Lilith Louise
5.0 out of 5 stars Falling in love while working through grief
Reviewed in the United States on March 31, 2023
Verified Purchase
I think Ruby Lang, in all her pen names, is a fantastic writer. The Art of Losing feels like a concentration of the thing she does best – showing the astounding bravery of being vulnerable and intimate. Gia and Cal both know that loss is inevitable in loving. Cal pursues Gia even though he knows she’s leaving and Gia lets Cal in, even though she’s already grieving one loss. They are so awkwardly, fallibly, gorgeously human.

It’s a short novella, but a keeper for sure. Gia starts in a place where her emotions are too big for the cramped space she has allowed them, and ends with an expansive joy. All the characters are grappling with grief, change, and moving on. Everything is seen through Gia’s eyes, so as readers we see her understanding of herself, her parents, and Cal shift. It’s quietly cathartic.
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B Weiss
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2023
Verified Purchase
A novella you will come back to. I wanted the best for Gia and Cal. I felt the pull and excitement of new love and related to the intense rearrangements grief brings. Another excellent story by Ruby Lang.
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Felicia Davin
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and moving
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2023
What precise, beautiful prose this has. It’s a glimpse of a turning point in Gia Franchetti’s life: she’s grieving for her father, struggling to connect with her mother, and in search of—something. The story opens in Shanghai, where she’s interviewing for a job and trying to get to know her birth country after growing up with her adoptive family in Boston. She thinks she sees her father in a crowd and ends up following the sight, leading her to get lost and also to meet a rescuer. Cal Webb, a Black American professor of music, is visiting Shanghai but just happens to live in Boston, too, and he and Gia feel an instant connection that only deepens as they spend more time together. He’s so warm and instantly lovable and she’s prickly and eccentric, which I always love as a dynamic. But Gia’s leaving Boston for Shanghai in a matter of weeks. The conflict feels so rooted in real life—how can they make a long-distance relationship work? How can they both keep the people and the jobs and the places they love? The solution feels real, too. I loved that this compact novella still made time for the changing relationship between Gia and her mom and for Gia learning to cope with her grief.
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sewcrazy
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written
Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2023
THE ART OF LOSING is a novella by the talented Ruby Lang. It is a short but utterly moving and pitch perfect piece of literature and I absolutely loved it. I have always been a fan of Lang’s authorial voice and her sparse but lovely prose. This novella is one step above her recent work and is now my go-to when I recommend romances to non-romance and super snobby readers. Each sentence belongs, her words are polished and intentional and there is never any doubt in the reader’s mind that Gia and Cal together are magic. Lang does the difficult work of giving us a compelling romance, a story about grief and family, musings on racism and culture and food, and all in the short space of a novella. Evocative and so beautifully written, I cannot say enough good things about THE ART OF LOSING.
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