Five Feet Apart

Rachael Lippincott’s 2018 novel Five Feet Apart portrays the intense relationship between meticulous Stella Grant and charming but rebellious Will Newman as they navigate life with cystic fibrosis. A genetic disease that affects both the respiratory and digestive system, cystic fibrosis significantly reduces the life span of those affected and limits their interactions with one another for fear of bacterial cross-infection. Alternating between the first-person point of view of both Stella and Will, the novel is mainly set within the fictional Saint Grace’s Hospital as their intimate relationship grows despite their inability to ever touch.

A young adult novel published by Simon and Schuster, Five Feet Apart was adapted into a popular film by the same name in 2019. Though fictional, the film is dedicated to Claire Wineland, a cystic fibrosis patient who helped create the film and, like Stella, created YouTube videos of her experiences with the disease. Claire died one week after receiving a lung transplant the year before the film’s release.

Plot Summary

Five Feet Apart documents the two weeks over which Stella Grant and Will Newman, both cystic fibrosis patients at Saint Grace’s Hospital, fall in love amid a physical separation that does not allow them to touch.