What Are You Going Through

A Novel

By: Sigrid Nunez

Narrated by: Hillary Huber

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY NPR, PEOPLE, AND O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE

A NEW YORK TIMES CRITICS’ TOP BOOK OF 2020

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

“As good as The Friend, if not better.” —The New York Times

“Impossible to put down . . . leavened with wit and tenderness.” —People

“I was dazed by the novel’s grace.” —The New Yorker

The New York Times–bestselling, National Book Award–winning author of The Friend brings her singular voice to a story about the meaning of life and death, and the value of companionship

A woman describes a series of encounters she has with various people in the ordinary course of her life: an ex she runs into by chance at a public forum, an Airbnb owner unsure how to interact with her guests, a stranger who seeks help comforting his elderly mother, a friend of her youth now hospitalized with terminal cancer. In each of these people the woman finds a common need: the urge to talk about themselves and to have an audience to their experiences. The narrator orchestrates this chorus of voices for the most part as a passive listener, until one of them makes an extraordinary request, drawing her into an intense and transformative experience of her own.

In What Are You Going Through, Nunez brings wisdom, humor, and insight to a novel about human connection and the changing nature of relationships in our times. A surprising story about empathy and the unusual ways one person can help another through hardship, her book offers a moving and provocative portrait of the way we live now.

Unforgettable

Told in a straightforward and yet richly layered voice, this novel contemplates what it means to live, and what it means to die, and what it means to be remembered. As someone who has a chronic disease that also has no cure I found the portrait of what it means to be sick in a world that only has room for the able-bodied and the well poignantly accurate. The narration gives a quiet, reflective, and yet nuanced cadence to this exquisitely written, writerly novel.

Perfect for our times

This novel of ideas is startlingly prescient as it addresses matters of mortality and life’s significance. I found it deeply moving and relevant as I, like everyone, suffer through quarantine. It’s funny, too.

Well narrated narrative

There’s no story to grab you. There’s no mystery. There are no names for the characters in this book. There’s tragedy and plenty of loving gestures. Despite all that is not contained within the book the listener will find universally recognised traits that are commendable.

Ended too soon...

The narration of this book was fantastic, I love the deadpan way in which she narrates the ex husband. This book should be renamed "What's Your Story" as it is a series of stories woven into one main story. The reader hears the stories of neighbors, friends, exes, even cats! The one thing I felt was lacking was the ending, I totally understand why the end was not wrapped up like a gift (because the end is never pretty). I just wanted closure. Overall a beautiful book to remind us to have empathy for others.

Completely brilliant!!!

Like everything Nunez writes, this was gorgeous & smart & witty & very moving.
A great treat & an education.