Self Care A Novel

A lightly satirical novel about female cofounders of a wellness start-up struggle to find balance between being good people and doing good business, while trying to stay BFFs.

Maren Gelb is on a company-imposed digital detox. She tweeted something terrible about the President’s daughter, and as the COO of Richual, “the most inclusive online community platform for women to cultivate the practice of self-care and change the world by changing ourselves,” it’s a PR nightmare. Not only is CEO Devin Avery counting on Maren to be fully present for their next round of funding, but indispensable employee Khadijah Walker has been keeping a secret that will reveal just how feminist Richual’s values actually are, and former Bachelorette contestant and Richual board member Evan Wiley is about to be embroiled in a sexual misconduct scandal that destroy the company forever.

Have you ever scrolled through Instagram and seen countless influencers who seem like experts at caring for themselves — from their yoga crop tops to their well-lit clean meals to their serumed skin and erudite-but-color-coded reading stack? Self Care delves into the lives and psyches of people working in the wellness industry and exposes the world behind the filter.

“Leigh Stein’s latest novel is as decadent and brutal as a vampire facial. It’s an exposé of feel-good feminism, an indictment of contemporary capitalism, and an absolute treat to read. This book will make you laugh, gasp, and vow to get off social media for good — and it’ll understand when you can’t help but log right back on.” Julia Phillips, National Book Award finalist for Disappearing Earth

“Wickedly talented Leigh Stein — for my money, one of our sharpest millennial writers — knows the internet, and she’s used that intimate knowledge to write a pitch-perfect novel for our times. Self Care is a hilarious and sneakily moving send-up of what it means to try and live when every move you make is observed and dissected online, by a writer who sees the truth and says it with so much humor and heart you’ll laugh (and maybe cry) out loud.” Julie Buntin, author of Marlena

“It’s not just that I found Self Care wildly entertaining, I found it deeply illuminating. So this is how the clickbait gets cooked up! I learned, I laughed, I loved every page. What I especially admired was Leigh Stein’s rare ability to be hilariously wicked while remaining deeply empathetic. I say skip your next juice cleanse and read this brilliant and delightful novel.” Meghan Daum, author of The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through The New Culture Wars

“A titillating satire about our quest for validation and the lengths that some will go to for #selfactualization, Self Care is an intelligent, delightful read that will make your mind (and epidermis!) glow.” Courtney Maum, author of Touch and Costalegre

“Stein’s sharp writing separates her from the pack in this exquisite, Machiavellian morality tale about the ethics of looking out for oneself.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Leigh Stein is the author of the acclaimed 2012 novel, The Fallback Plan, a poetry collection the same year (both Melville House), and the 2016 memoir, Land of Enchantment (Plume). From 2014-2017, before she was 30, she ran a secret Facebook group of 40,000 women writers, in her role as cofounder and executive director of Out of the Binders/BinderCon, a feminist nonprofit organization.