The most recent book by Nunez, who won The National Book Award for fiction in 2018, is terse, yet complex and thought provoking. The three main characters are the narrator, her ex husband, and the narrator’s friend. None of the characters are given names. The friend is dying from cancer, wants to end her life before she experiences more pain, and asks the narrator to be in the next room when she decides to swallow the deadly pills.

What Are You Going Through is not for the feint of heart. Death surrounds this novel. However, for me, it was well worth the discomfort. Nunez incorporates so many intriguing ideas throughout that I often wished I was reading her novel along with someone, so we could discuss ideas as they came up.