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• Book Sense Pick
• Featured Alternate of the Book of the Month Club, Literary Guild, and Doubleday Book Clubs
• People magazine Critic's Choice
• Good Housekeeping "Good Read"
• Publishers Weekly Starred Review
• Center Stage Book Club Selection, B&N.com
• Publishers Weekly 2008 Listen-Up Award Winner
Critical Praise:
"The Cure for Modern Life is so inviting because it's about people we all know, or at least think we know. Tucker deftly forces us to ponder what we'd do in this exploration of the complexity of human nature and our relationships with one another."
— The Salt Lake Tribune
"Tucker's book works because she knows how to limn characters, tell a story economically, and propel it at just the right allegro-vivace tempo."
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Lisa Tucker, once again, brings a fresh view to the intricacies of relationships in The Cure for Modern Life...Tucker continues to grow as a writer, and The Cure for Modern Life gives readers some ethical questions to ponder. It's an approach that has long been Jodi Picoult territory, but Tucker comes at it from a different direction. The questions aren't the source of the plot, but they drive the relationships among central characters. It's a structure that should make the novel attractive to book groups who've enjoyed Picoult's work."
— The Denver Post
"The conflict of right and wrong runs strong throughout this story, as the lives of a business executive and his ex-girlfriend intersect with that of a homeless boy. Lisa Tucker gets at the heart of human emotion while also bringing to light the ethical and moral decisions faced in business. Her characters will stay with you long after you finish the novel."
—Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Read This” (Shelly Plumb, Harleysville Books, Book Sense Pick)
"This is Tucker’s fourth book in as many years, and with each new title, she shows herself to be a natural-born storyteller who is developing an increasingly sophisticated technique. Here she seamlessly weaves together a touching and very modern relationship story with some compelling social issues, including medical ethics, homelessness, and corporate greed. Underlying the whole is a multifaceted analysis of what it means to be a good person in the twenty-first century... This fast-paced, funny, and smart novel is a sure bet for book clubs.
—Booklist
"Tucker offers a cure for modern readers seeking an enjoyable literary page turner that also explores serious social issues such as addiction, ethics and genetics... In crisp, lively prose, Tucker cleverly executes a series of surprising twists that… make the novel as fast-paced as a thriller, but with astute and often humorous observations about the shifting morality of 21st-century America. The relationship dilemmas at the center of this story make it an excellent choice for book clubs, but the novel should also increase Tucker’s male readership and solidify her position as a gifted writer with a wide range and a profound sense of compassion for the mysteries of the human heart."
—Publishers Weekly
"For gripping drama, [read] The Cure for Modern Life… a taut yet emotionally satisfying page-turner."
—Good Housekeeping
"An inspiring, twisting story of redemption, forgiveness and morality."
—Romantic Times
"I was excited about Lisa Tucker's new novel, The Cure for Modern Life, because I loved her last novel, Once Upon a Day. This is her best novel yet, with captivating characters, a progressively intricate plot and unexpected twists that grabbed me and did not let me go. The hip, funny and cynical protagonist, Matthew Connelly, who works for a pharmaceutical company and undergoes a transformation after meeting a homeless 10-year-old boy, is so fully realized that I wondered who Tucker had been talking to, to get such insight into the male mind. As Matthew's definition of happiness and success is upended, the reader confronts serious questions about what the good life is and how we decide what is right and wrong. The story is so cinematic, it's impossible not to be casting a film version while you read it. I think this is a novel that will appeal to everyone from book club members to those who read just one book a year."
— Publishers Weekly, “Galley Talk” (Rob Dougherty, Clinton Book Shop)
The Cure for Modern Life
Matthew and Amelia were once in love and planning to raise a family together, but a decade later, they have become professional enemies.
To Amelia, who has dedicated her life to medical ethics, Matthew's job as a high-powered pharmaceutical executive has turned him into a heartless person who doesn't care about anything but money. Now they're kept in balance only by Matthew's best and oldest friend, Ben, a rising science superstar -- and Amelia's new boyfriend.
That balance begins to crumble one night when, coming home to his upscale Philadelphia loft, Matthew finds himself on a desolate bridge face-to-face with a boy screaming for help. Homeless for most of his life, ten-year-old Danny is as streetwise as he is world-weary, and his desperation to save his three-year-old sister means he will do whatever it takes to get Matthew's help. What follows is an escalating game of one-upmanship between Matthew, Amelia, and Danny, as all three players struggle to defend what is most important to them -- and are ultimately forced to reconsider what they truly want.
The Cure for Modern Life is about what it means in the twenty-first century to be responsible, to care about other people, and to do the right thing.
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