Wellness

From Nathan Hill, acclaimed author of The Nix, comes another hugely ambitious novel, about how we change, grow and age. Wellness is a story of marriage, middle age, our tech-obsessed health culture, and the bonds that keep people together, for readers of Jonathan Franzen, Jennifer Egan and Elizabeth Strout.

When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the 90s, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in Chicago's thriving underground art scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward twenty years to married life, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons, from unfulfilled career ambitions to painful childhood memories of their own dysfunctional families. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other.

Moving from the gritty 90s Chicago art scene to a suburbia of detox diets and home renovation hysteria, Wellness mines the absurdities of modern technology and modern love to reveal profound, startling truths about intimacy and connection. In this follow-up to Hill's electric debut, Wellness reimagines the love story with healthy doses of insight, irony and heart.