Book cover of In Pillness and in Health: A memoir

Book description

What if your husband gave you a kidney and you chugged a beer with your painkillers the next day?

What if your loving marriage became a tortured threesome? Husband, Wife and Pills?

Meet Henriette and Kevin. As newlyweds, they move to LA to conquer Hollywood. When the dream begins to…

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Why read it?

1 author picked In Pillness and in Health as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I loved this book because it tells the truth about illness and addiction without sentimentality.

Henriette Ivanans writes about kidney failure, substance abuse, and marriage with an honesty that feels earned, to say the least, not performative. I was deeply moved by the way love is portrayed here—not as something glamorous or easy, but as something that stays.

Her writing is emotionally grounded, and the book never asks for pity. It reminded me that some of the most profound transformations happen quietly inside relationships that endure far more than they should have to.

From Shannon's list on women telling the messy truth.

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