Body Friend is a short novel about a young Australian woman with an unnamed chronic illness recovering from an operation. She makes friends with two women, Frida, who encourages her to swim to aid her recovery, and Sylvia who encourages her to rest. There’s not a lot of plot, but it’s well written and gives a fascinating insight into the experiences of our unnamed protagonist as she lives with chronic pain. I enjoyed how different this book was from what I usually read.

"Body Friend" by Kathrine Brabon seems to aim to explore the realities of living with chronic illness. Several things unfortunately made this an unsuccesful reading experience for me.

First - and this is really a very individual aspect: I was recovering from knee surgery when I read this. This seemed eerily similar to the main character's situation at first, yet, as it turns out, it was really different and maybe the worst possible situation to read this book. Also: I did get a false impression from the blurb and might not have picked it up had I know its subject was in fact chronic illness.

However, enough other elements from within the book, character, narrative, devices etc. made me not connect in any way with this novel anyway.

In the end I found the narrative draged on, the two "friends" the main character makes felt from the beginning off, naturally, as they obviously are no characters in the novel, but rather symbols of the main characters conflict in her illness or recovery. So the whole world of the novel felt distant to me, and I struggled to connect in any way.

The use of repetition throughout the narrative serves to emphasize the cyclical nature of chronic illness and its impact on the protagonist's life. I get it. but while this repetition adds depth to the story, it also occasionally made for a somewhat tedious reading experience.

Katherine Brabon's "Body Friend" is an intriguing and thought-provoking novel that delves into themes of identity, connection, and the impact of technology on human relationships. Brabon’s narrative is sophisticated and introspective, exploring the lives of characters who intersect around a futuristic service that offers human-like companions designed to meet the emotional needs of its users.

The story is richly layered, with Brabon's writing style providing a deep and nuanced examination of the characters' inner lives and the complex ways in which they interact with each other and with the technology that permeates their existence. "Body Friend" raises compelling questions about the nature of authenticity and intimacy in a world where human connections can be manufactured and customized. This novel is a compelling read for those interested in speculative fiction that challenges the boundaries between the real and the artificial.

Not my usual type of read, but I'm glad I read it. It was really interesting and made me think. It was a real eye opener. It's definitely worth reading.

This was a well-written story of friendship and body image and how the way we view ourselves and those around us are intrinsically linked. I did feel that it was slightly too long winded at times and found my interest waning, but in all this was an enjoyable novel.

I finished reading Body Friend a while ago now but have struggled to get my thoughts in order to review it. This novel shows what it is like to live with chronic pain and uncertainty about the future that comes with that in a way that I have never read before. I suffer with chronic pain and this book just felt like it could have been written about some of my own experiences. The friends that the protagonist makes that represent two sides of how we are when she are trying to recover - one who encourages pushing through at all costs, and one who insists on rest and languishing in the suffering are so cleverly written. I felt sure these friends were there as a device rather than being real but they can be read either way and I thought that was so brilliant. I don't have the words to express who incredible this book is, I just want everyone to take time to read it. It's already one of my favourite books of the year and I can't recommend it highly enough!

This book in my opinion isn’t worth the paper it’s typed on! It’s the most depressing book I’ve ever read…..i most certainly wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone unless your in desperate need for some sleep.

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Body friend - Katherine Brabon

This is a beautiful novel and chronic illness and the long road to recovery after surgery. It follows a 28 year old whom suffers with a chronic illness and has a surgery to help minimise the pain.

We begin to follow her recovery as she goes swimming to help rebuild her muscles. Here she meets a women whose gone through a similar surgery, Frida. Frida encourages her to move her body and the two swim often together.

Away from the pool our narrator meets Sylvia, who has also gone through a similar situation. Howe seever, unlike Frida Sylvia wants to embrace the pain. She wants our narrator to relax and let her body recover.

The two friends never meet one another but our narrator seems to be struggling between the two friends and also her body, wanting to recover and relax. It ws a really interesting look into chronic illness and the recovery after surgery.

This was such an interesting and unsettling read. It's easy to submerse yourself into our narrator's worldview. However, scary that is!

i can definitely see this appealing to I Laugh Me Broken by Bridget van der Zijpp. the prose wasn't too memorable but it makes for a fairly short and thought-provoking read

I’ve never read a book of such interiority that is still very much and completely of the body. Chronic illnesses deny linear narratives and Brabon uses this to create circular and repeating patterns. She utilises concepts of the double and the mirroring of self to situate her protagonist in times of fluidity and times of stagnation.

I love Brabon’s prose, she’s a superb and beautiful writer. Here it rings clean and clear and allows you to be in your head and completely in your body.

I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley. I find it hard to write a review of a book which i found so utterly depressing and seemed to have no real focus. If the author was trying to get something across she completely failed to do so. For me this was a staggering work of non-entity

This book was so dark and sad, an excellent insight into the lives of those with chronic pain, the mundanity and the struggle.

A very deep look into how we look at illness and recovery, we see the too as separate and nearly dismiss the second whereas it’s just as important.

So cleverly written. Short chapters - my favourite, and such beautiful prose. I honestly started this quite apprehensively and then found myself devouring it in just a few sittings.

I only knew some information regarding chronic illness/autoimmune diseases and this novel has helped me to understand and empathise with it better than before.

A great read.

As someone with a chronic pain condition, I found this to be one of the most accurate depictions of what it's like to live in pain. To be hyper aware of every sound and smell, proximity to others, the hypervigilance needed to feel some semblance of control when your body is out of control.

Body Friend is beautifully written, under-stated, languid almost. Quiet. It's unusual and compelling, reflective. Almost impossible to categorise, but for anyone who's living with pain, or for anyone who longs to understand a loved ones experience, I can't recommend this enough.

This week, ‘body friend’ by Katherine Brabon, coming out in the UK on 18 January.

In Body Friend our protagonist suffers from a chronic illness and receives surgery to provide some relief. During her recovery she meets two women.

Syvlie and Frida who she knows understand her pain in a way the other people in her life don’t. She feels a kinship with these women.

Our protagonist meets Frida at the pool. Frida’s path to feeling better is based on staying active, pushing herself and submitting to pain.

For Syvlie rest, being gentle with yourself, taking things slow and acknowledging pain are fundamental.

There’s a tension in these approaches, which exists in the protagonist herself.

These women are separate to each other and from the rest of the protagonist’s lives. It leaves the reader to question are they real? A projection of the protagonist’s selves?

What did I like?
- Chronic illness defying society’s ‘recovery’ narratives, pushing against recovery as linear
- It really interrogated how chronic illness impacts your relationship with self, the body, pain, partner, work.
- Art, history and philosophy are woven into the narrative, in a way fans of Ali Smith will love

What didn’t work for me?
- It could at times be a little slow and repetitive. Propulsive plot lovers might want to give this one a miss.

Pick up this book if:
You’re a fan of interior, slow and thoughtful novels.

Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for my honest views.

This is the story of a few months in the life of woman, who has an unnamed, auto- immune condition requiring a hip replacement ( I assumed rheumatoid arthritis). the novel starts just before the operation and continues through a summer where she meets Two women who have similar problems and are coping in their own own ways

It was strange reading a book when the experience of the main character is so similar to your own experiences fiction and fact blur. I have both chronic pain and autoimmune condition and the love of cold water swimming so this really was a perfect perfect novel for me. The author can only have personal experience of chronic pain and chronic illness. I don’t think it would be possible to write this another without this as what the narrator experienced seemed so similar to my own experiences.

The simple kindness of a nurse rubbing cream into her leg when she is recovering from operation filled me with such a motion as I recalled as time post operation when nurse did that for me such a simple thing, so meaningful.

Did wonder at one stage if the two women were figments for imagination, they were so similar to her.
The author has a beautiful way with words, her prose lyrical and flows beautifully, making the novel and enjoyable read and worthy of inclusion in in the category of literary novel
The novel set in Australia but the experiences in lifestyle of the characters are enough to UK experiences to make this book one that can easily transfer to the UK market
I’d recommend this book to anyone who likes a relationship based novel the book that I’ve read recently that is most similar to this one is a book called A Still Life by Josie George. This book is a memoir rather than a novel, but both authors have a similar poetic writing style und describe life with ongoing chronic health issues in a very similar way.
I read copy on NetGalley UK the book is published in the UK on the 18th of January 2024 by ultimo press .
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK Goodreads and my book blog bionicSarahsbooks.wordpress.com. After publication, it will also appear on Amazon, UK.

I really enjoyed this. The unnamed narrator tells us of her illness - which she does not disclose but says it is an autoimmune disease - and her limp. She spends five days in hospital, has an operation, and afterwards meets two women, separately, who both look like her. Frida, she meets at the swimming pool, is active and tough and wants to "get better" (she seems to suffer from the same illness as the narrator), becomes judgmental when the narrator does not follow her exercise regime. And Sylvia, whom she meets at the park, who wants to rest, take slow walks, drink coffee on the balcony, becomes possessive when the narrator wants to be more active.
I liked the juxtaposition of these two doppelgangers (it is not clear if they exist or are invented by the narrator), and the writing, the anxiety throughout. I found the text at times repetitive but beautifully written, and intelligent.

What an absolutely glittering account of chronic illness/disability, navigating relationships, navigating your sense of self. Such a unique approach - every word packs a punch! I loved the way the protagonist swings between the two women in her life, both with such differing ideologies, and gravitating more to either one depending on her physical state. I love the completely visceral descriptions of being sick, of pain, of it’s all encompassing nature.
I highlighted SO many passages and zoomed through it so fast I’m surprised my phone didn’t break !
I wish I could write something that could more accurately convey just how wonderful this piece of work is, and how life altering reading it was for me. It’s incredibly necessary and devastating and beautiful and urgent. I loved it to pieces. Feel very grateful to Ultimo Press for allowing me to immerse myself in these words for a while. Katherine Brabon is a genius, brb recommending to everyone x