There's Nothing Wrong with Her

"Beautiful." —Sarah Jessica Parker

"Funny and painfully true. . . . The best thing you'll read this year." —Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age

A raw, tenderly comic, and perfectly off-kilter novel about a woman with a mysterious illness who occasionally finds herself in "The Pit” — a delirious state of semi-consciousness — and the improbable, sometimes-imagined people who meet her there.


Vita Woods is on the brink. She produces a popular podcast and lives with her successful doctor boyfriend, Max, with whom the sex is great and the future promising. Her brilliant if unreliable sister Gracie is her best friend and sparring partner. And her steadfast goldfish, Whitney Houston, brightens even her dimmest days. Because the days are dark, as much as things are going right. Vita is not leaving the house. In fact, she can barely make it out of bed.

Instead, she spends long, blurred hours falling in and out of “The Pit,” dead to the world and to herself. For months, Vita has been sick with an illness that no doctor, not even Max, can diagnose. And recently, Luigi, a Renaissance poet nursing a 500-year-old heartbreak, has started showing up at her bedside, bringing snacks and unsolicited romantic advice. He says he’s come to release her. The issue is: he may be a ghost, an apparition of her sickly mind.

Then, when, an unexpected mix-up pushes her into the path of her upstairs neighbors, Vita finds friendship — and perhaps more — in the apartment above. But something about her “condition” keeps nagging at her. What if the problem is Vita herself? Because as far as anyone can prove...there’s nothing wrong with her.
"Kate Weinberg has written a gorgeous, engrossing and urgent book. Her unforgettable characters wrestle with a monster that stalks so many lives. Read this for the ones you love who have fought the same long fight." —Kevin Sullivan, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

"Weinberg takes a stylistic turn in this short, sharp read about friendship and recovery, inspired by her experience with long COVID." —Library Journal

"It's so beautiful. And so painful. And so gorgeously descriptive of a devastating chapter that so many of us just don't know or understand even, with all compassion." —Sarah Jessica Parker

"Funny and painfully true. A book of revelations. This is a beautiful capture of what it means to live with a chronic illness. The best thing you'll read this year." —Kiley Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age

"Slim in size but vast in emotional impact, Kate Weinberg’s novel explores the landscape of one woman’s life—her heart, her family, her pain and her desires. A work of dazzling bravery." —Jenny Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street

"Kate Weinberg writes with prose so exquisite that I kept copying bits to show people. There's Nothing Wrong With Her is so beautifully perceptive and forensically observed; she writes about the complexities of human relationships in a way that stops me in my tracks. One of those books I will read again and again." —Jojo Moyes, New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You

"There's Nothing Wrong with Her is a tender, curious, and undeniably urgent exploration of the many modern challenges to women's health and happiness. As compassionate as it is incisive, Weinberg's latest makes a persuasive case for the saving graces of our imaginative inner worlds." —M.L. Rio, author of If We Were Villains

"This painfully funny novel sizzles with love and desire, isolation and loss, and the incongruous breakthroughs that take place when one has little left to lose." —Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen

"This novel may delve into The Pit (of ill health, of grief, of despair), but it never feels less than buoyant. Weinberg has found a way to write about chronic illness and pain with great wit, creativity, and verve. I loved every page of this short novel and hated to leave its vibrant characters behind." —Laura Sims, author of How Can I Help You

"Gloriously original, funny, and frighteningly observant, reading Kate Weinberg’s There’s Nothing Wrong with Her is like reading your brain turned inside out and seeing all the chaos that goes inside, as written by an author with an astuteness and clarity of voice that is captivating and entirely brilliant. I loved it!" —Ore Agbaje-Williams, author of The Three of Us

"There’s Nothing Wrong with Her is the rarest of reads: unflinchingly honest, wryly funny, and incredibly tender in the moments between. Vita and her eccentric crew are companions we could all use on our toughest days." —Leanne Toshiko Simpson, author of Never Been Better

"I couldn't put down this quick, clever novel. . . . Both comic and heartbreaking in equal measure, There's Nothing Wrong With Her is a post-pandemic must-read. I'll be thinking about its vivid cast of characters for a good long time." —Amy Shearn, award-winning author of Dear Edna Sloane and The Mermaid of Brooklyn

"Deep and dark and beautiful." —Esther Freud, author of Hideous Kinky

"A really wonderful piece of work: so fresh . . . So excellently written . . . I love the way it encompasses SO many things: a whole life—sorrows, damage, hopes—but then has them interacting so interestingly with the present, like two thick paint colors slowly mixing in front of your eyes." —Richard Curtis

"It’s moving, absorbing, evocative—such a thoughtful exploration of the traps of grief and chronic illness. Beautifully conjured. Shades, I felt, of The Yellow Wallpaper, but brilliantly modernised.” —Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton

"I’ve never read anything like it. A brilliant mass of contradictions. . . . It’s light and dark, funny and moving, soulful and sexy, quirky and important. A delight and an education on every page." —Emma Freud
© James Rawlings
Kate Weinberg was born and lives in London. She studied English at Oxford and creative writing in East Anglia. She has worked as a slush pile reader, a bookshop assistant, a journalist and a ghost writer. The Truants is her first novel. View titles by Kate Weinberg
Discussion Guide for There's Nothing Wrong with Her

Provides questions, discussion topics, suggested reading lists, introductions and/or author Q&As, which are intended to enhance reading groups’ experiences.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)

About

"Beautiful." —Sarah Jessica Parker

"Funny and painfully true. . . . The best thing you'll read this year." —Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun Age

A raw, tenderly comic, and perfectly off-kilter novel about a woman with a mysterious illness who occasionally finds herself in "The Pit” — a delirious state of semi-consciousness — and the improbable, sometimes-imagined people who meet her there.


Vita Woods is on the brink. She produces a popular podcast and lives with her successful doctor boyfriend, Max, with whom the sex is great and the future promising. Her brilliant if unreliable sister Gracie is her best friend and sparring partner. And her steadfast goldfish, Whitney Houston, brightens even her dimmest days. Because the days are dark, as much as things are going right. Vita is not leaving the house. In fact, she can barely make it out of bed.

Instead, she spends long, blurred hours falling in and out of “The Pit,” dead to the world and to herself. For months, Vita has been sick with an illness that no doctor, not even Max, can diagnose. And recently, Luigi, a Renaissance poet nursing a 500-year-old heartbreak, has started showing up at her bedside, bringing snacks and unsolicited romantic advice. He says he’s come to release her. The issue is: he may be a ghost, an apparition of her sickly mind.

Then, when, an unexpected mix-up pushes her into the path of her upstairs neighbors, Vita finds friendship — and perhaps more — in the apartment above. But something about her “condition” keeps nagging at her. What if the problem is Vita herself? Because as far as anyone can prove...there’s nothing wrong with her.

Reviews

"Kate Weinberg has written a gorgeous, engrossing and urgent book. Her unforgettable characters wrestle with a monster that stalks so many lives. Read this for the ones you love who have fought the same long fight." —Kevin Sullivan, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist

"Weinberg takes a stylistic turn in this short, sharp read about friendship and recovery, inspired by her experience with long COVID." —Library Journal

"It's so beautiful. And so painful. And so gorgeously descriptive of a devastating chapter that so many of us just don't know or understand even, with all compassion." —Sarah Jessica Parker

"Funny and painfully true. A book of revelations. This is a beautiful capture of what it means to live with a chronic illness. The best thing you'll read this year." —Kiley Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Such a Fun Age

"Slim in size but vast in emotional impact, Kate Weinberg’s novel explores the landscape of one woman’s life—her heart, her family, her pain and her desires. A work of dazzling bravery." —Jenny Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street

"Kate Weinberg writes with prose so exquisite that I kept copying bits to show people. There's Nothing Wrong With Her is so beautifully perceptive and forensically observed; she writes about the complexities of human relationships in a way that stops me in my tracks. One of those books I will read again and again." —Jojo Moyes, New York Times bestselling author of Me Before You

"There's Nothing Wrong with Her is a tender, curious, and undeniably urgent exploration of the many modern challenges to women's health and happiness. As compassionate as it is incisive, Weinberg's latest makes a persuasive case for the saving graces of our imaginative inner worlds." —M.L. Rio, author of If We Were Villains

"This painfully funny novel sizzles with love and desire, isolation and loss, and the incongruous breakthroughs that take place when one has little left to lose." —Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen

"This novel may delve into The Pit (of ill health, of grief, of despair), but it never feels less than buoyant. Weinberg has found a way to write about chronic illness and pain with great wit, creativity, and verve. I loved every page of this short novel and hated to leave its vibrant characters behind." —Laura Sims, author of How Can I Help You

"Gloriously original, funny, and frighteningly observant, reading Kate Weinberg’s There’s Nothing Wrong with Her is like reading your brain turned inside out and seeing all the chaos that goes inside, as written by an author with an astuteness and clarity of voice that is captivating and entirely brilliant. I loved it!" —Ore Agbaje-Williams, author of The Three of Us

"There’s Nothing Wrong with Her is the rarest of reads: unflinchingly honest, wryly funny, and incredibly tender in the moments between. Vita and her eccentric crew are companions we could all use on our toughest days." —Leanne Toshiko Simpson, author of Never Been Better

"I couldn't put down this quick, clever novel. . . . Both comic and heartbreaking in equal measure, There's Nothing Wrong With Her is a post-pandemic must-read. I'll be thinking about its vivid cast of characters for a good long time." —Amy Shearn, award-winning author of Dear Edna Sloane and The Mermaid of Brooklyn

"Deep and dark and beautiful." —Esther Freud, author of Hideous Kinky

"A really wonderful piece of work: so fresh . . . So excellently written . . . I love the way it encompasses SO many things: a whole life—sorrows, damage, hopes—but then has them interacting so interestingly with the present, like two thick paint colors slowly mixing in front of your eyes." —Richard Curtis

"It’s moving, absorbing, evocative—such a thoughtful exploration of the traps of grief and chronic illness. Beautifully conjured. Shades, I felt, of The Yellow Wallpaper, but brilliantly modernised.” —Sara Collins, author of The Confessions of Frannie Langton

"I’ve never read anything like it. A brilliant mass of contradictions. . . . It’s light and dark, funny and moving, soulful and sexy, quirky and important. A delight and an education on every page." —Emma Freud

Author

© James Rawlings
Kate Weinberg was born and lives in London. She studied English at Oxford and creative writing in East Anglia. She has worked as a slush pile reader, a bookshop assistant, a journalist and a ghost writer. The Truants is her first novel. View titles by Kate Weinberg

Guides

Discussion Guide for There's Nothing Wrong with Her

Provides questions, discussion topics, suggested reading lists, introductions and/or author Q&As, which are intended to enhance reading groups’ experiences.

(Please note: the guide displayed here is the most recently uploaded version; while unlikely, any page citation discrepancies between the guide and book is likely due to pagination differences between a book’s different formats.)