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Wellness
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 18 hrs and 56 mins
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Wellness
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Publisher's Summary
An Oprah's Book Club Pick. The New York Times Bestseller.
A powerfully affecting 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.
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 Nathan Hill’s electric debut, Wellness reimagines the love story with healthy doses of insight, irony and heart.
Critic Reviews
'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 hilarious and moving exploration of a modern marriage that astounds in its breadth and intimacy.' – Brit Bennett, author of The Mothers and The Vanishing Half
'Nathan Hill is a maestro . . . the best new writer of fiction in America – the best' – John Irving
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What listeners say about Wellness
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Joshua Crouthamel
- 10-10-2023
New favorite book, new favorite voice talent
I can’t praise or recommend this listen enough. Hadn’t heard of the author before, but now I need to get my hands on their entire catalogue. Wellness was funny, poignant, tightly written and entertaining. The voice talent was one of the best I’ve ever heard - nuanced, distinct, excellent with both patter and characterization. Love, love, love.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 31-10-2023
Wonderful - a book for our times
This is essentially a love story unpacking 20 years of marriage between two very likable Gen X'ers. Afloat on the tumultuous sea of self-improvement and bio-hack advice, a newlywed couple embarks on a journey to discover their marital destiny. It is poignant, funny and nails the last 4 decades of psycho/social and health concerns. Jack Baker, a talented photographer from an unhappy upbringing in the prairies of Kansas commences his career in Chicago in the nineties. He encounters the object of his affection, Elizabeth Augustine, student at DePaul University and a super high achiever, hailing from old money.
A blissful period ensues of carefree and heady times with friends. Elizabeth ultimately lands a job in a psychological research firm attached to the University observing the placebo affect on behavioural outcomes via a company called Wellness. The couple go on to have a child. The title of the book examines Wellness in all it's complexity through the lens of these two earnest 'mindful' partners. It is both a poignant and hilarious journey. Nathan Hill's comic evaluation of everything from open marriage, digital fit-bits, gut flora, diets fads, progressive parenting, data dependence, social media and cult behavior is well observed but never unkind.
It is a book of our times and simultaneously tells a heartfelt story of how love leans in, overcomes, and ultimately of what gets lost along the way. It is long, but it has to be to be a convincing portrait of two lives. It is a clever and highly entertaining. I did love this one.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 19-11-2023
An intriguing premise masterfully delivered
A hugely satisfying story, read with heart and empathy for the cast of complex characters.
Woven through with truths about relationships, art and the significance of the stories we tell and those that we believe.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Brod
- 29-03-2024
Pretentious
The whole thing just felt incredibly pretentious and boring. The characters are unlikeable, and rarely have redeeming qualities. The meeting where Jack has to explain his incredibly niche art style, only for it to fall to deaf ears, reeks of the writer trying to shoehorn in his own commentary about being a misunderstood artist.
I got to the chapter where they talked about taking their kid to a school that is a "smashed together" curriculum where kids of different ages all learnt together because it's how kid actually learn. I rolled my eyes so hard, I swear my neighbor heard it.
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