The Fix

For readers of Maria Semple and Grant Ginder, a funny, furious, and emotionally piercing debut novel about a middle-aged journalist at a crossroads, a reverse-aging drug that actually works, and the friend that got away.

Forty-five-year-old Julia is a freelance journalist mired in the myriad pressures of marriage, motherhood, and midlife. Two daughters, a kind but complacent husband, and a household that runs on her invisible labor: it’s a recipe for quiet resentment and thwarted ambition.

And then one day two things happen: Julia gets offered an assignment from the most important newspaper in the country. They’ve gotten early access to a new reverse-aging drug, and they’re offering her a large amount of money to take that drug and write about her experience. And at the same time Kate, Julia’s best friend from high school, suddenly reenters her life in a whirlwind of drinking, soul-baring, and cigarette smoke.

Julia accepts the assignment and rekindles the friendship. Soon, she looks two decades younger, her career is on the upswing, and she and Kate are thick as thieves, reminding each other of the dreams and energy they had in their youth. It seems that Julia has a second shot at everything she thought she had lost. But is looking young the same as being young? And once you’ve spent your youth, what is the cost of getting it back?

Provocative, funny, and moving, The Fix explores the comforts and anguish of middle age, the mad optimism of youth, and how we reconcile the person we once were with the person we’ve become.