A hurricane strikes the Elysium Spa, and a gentle android named Tender can only save one of his guests - a fifteen-year-old girl named Virgo. She has the innocence of an infant - the Spa guests are born, reproduce, and die in scientifically calibrated baths that keep them in a state of perpetual ecstasy, called Joy. She has never walked, or spoken, or had a cogent thought.
Tender's sole purpose is to return Virgo to the state of bliss that is her birthright. He takes her on a journey across a post-apocalyptic American landscape depopulated by war, famine, and plague.
As Tender and Virgo struggle to survive, they come face to face with what it means to be a human on this earth. And they face a choice - embrace this painful, beautiful world, or return Virgo to an existence of mindless, but perfect, Joy.
JOY is lyrical post-apocalyptic fiction at it's best. A thrilling adventure, a coming of age story, and a profound exploration into what it means to be happy, and what it means to be human.
