Wellness cover art

Wellness

a thought-provoking story of a modern marriage, from the bestselling author of The Nix

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Wellness

By: Nathan Hill
Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
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About this listen

'American storytelling at its era-spanning best . . . An immersive, multi-layered portrait of a marriage, Nathan Hill’s follow-up to The Nix is a work of quiet genius' – The Observer

An Oprah's Book Club Pick.

Moving from the gritty 90s Chicago art scene to a suburbia of detox diets and home renovation hysteria, Wellness is a thought-provoking exploration of intimacy, identity, and the absurdities of our tech-obsessed health culture.

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.

From the author of The Nix, Wellness mines the absurdities of modern technology and modern love to reveal profound, startling truths about intimacy and connection, reimagining the love story with healthy doses of insight, irony and heart.

'The incredible scope of this dazzlingly detailed state-of-the-nation satire almost defies description . . . Brilliant doesn’t begin to describe it, but I’ll say it anyway' – Daily Mail

 City Life Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Romance Urban Heartfelt Funny Witty Technology

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Critic reviews

American storytelling at its era-spanning best . . . An immersive, multi-layered portrait of a marriage, Nathan Hill’s follow-up to The Nix is a work of quiet genius . . . tackling a few big questions. What is truth? What is love? And therefore, inevitably, what is true love?
The incredible scope of this dazzlingly detailed state-of-the-nation satire almost defies description . . . Brilliant doesn’t begin to describe it, but I’ll say it anyway.
Future historians, read this book . . . a crackling, witty chronicle of the world of the urban creative classes from the 1990s to now . . . I doubt I'll enjoy many books this year as much as Wellness.
A reader emerges from Hill’s world of Wellness with a keener eye for the tragicomic maladies of marriage, and a greater ear for the strangely affecting rhythms and algorithms of 21st-century life.
A bewitching, sophisticated book
Wellness is not some naive, crunchy-granola midlife-crisis novel . . . [it] is a clear-eyed look at the difficulty to live honestly in a world where authenticity may be the most challenged idea of all.
A clever satire on America's self-deluding 'wellness' class . . . The variety and ingenuity of Hill's satirical prods – from real-estate development to Facebook algorithms – is impressive.
This soulful satire takes aim at everything from gentrification to 'life hacks'. But it's also ambitious – and some nifty plotting by Hill reveals just how entangled contentment is with the stories we tell about ourselves.
This brilliant novel will leave you thinking about the truth of your own life and the stories we tell ourselves and each other. (Oprah Winfrey)
A compassionate satire of messy America
Hill's storytelling abilities are impressive . . . His novels vividly capture lonely Midwestern childhoods and real yearning for connection and understanding.
Wellness is a perfect novel for our age . . . It's beyond remarkable, both funny and heartbreaking, sometimes on the same page.
Hill is witty at exposing the ways intelligence and social background don’t necessarily make us more immune to manipulation.
I read Hill’s novel with excitement and close to a sense of disbelief that there is still a writer out there who is intrigued by amplitude and by what fiction can do if pushed far enough. (Daphne Merkin, The Atlantic)
Wellness brilliantly blends ideas about wellness culture, modern parenting, Internet algorithms, gentrification, and most importantly, love.
This new novel from the author of 2016 bestseller The Nix certainly packs a lot into its pages – parenting trends, the wellness industry, the meaning of art, conspiracy theories – all explored through scenes from the 20-year marriage between Elizabeth and Jack, as the pair grow together and apart again. Meaty but very readable
All stars
Most relevant
Absolutely loved this. Took me a few chapters to appreciate it's scope but what a profound, beautiful, funny reflection on everything from GenX sub culture to social media algorithms to the environment, SEN, American history. Astounding, ambitious, witty and deeply humane.

Wow

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I loved The Nix, Nathan Hill's first novel, so was keen to listen to this follow up.

I'm delighted to confirm that Wellness (2023) is every bit as good. It follows a young couple in 1990s Chicago through to the 21st century, and our current condition.

As with The Nix, Wellness is perceptive, insightful, wise, funny, and profound. It's insanely relatable and will have you questioning the stories you tell yourself.

Superb narration too.

Looking forward to discovering what Nathan Hill does next.

Another modern classic from Nathan Hill

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A great book with some very interesting concepts. As good as the Nix. would recommend.

thought provoking

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Loved this book, Full of brilliant ideas, enhanced by great neuration. Will definitely be reading more Nathan Hill.

emotional, funny and thought provoking

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I found this book after searching for “novels with science themes”, hoping to find a satirical wonder, and this is exactly that. I adored this book. The character development was perfect, no detail too much or too little. The story was great and I loved the ‘wellness’ theme. The research and fact-checking that must have gone in to the book is astonishing and I hope the author has been rewarded handsomely for this novel. Just brilliant fun with spot-on social observation and satire, and relatable characters with back stories that are at once heartbreaking and seemingly perfectly developed into their present-day selves. I laughed out loud a good few times with this book, which is very rare for me, and I don’t just mean a sharp exhale through the nose. Oh, and the performance of audiobook was stunning. I will now pick up anything Nathan Hill writes next and I’m off to find more books read by Ari Fliakos.

Absolutely wonderful

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