cover image The Little Book of Heartbreak: Love Gone Wrong Through the Ages

The Little Book of Heartbreak: Love Gone Wrong Through the Ages

Meghan Laslocky. Plume, $15 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-452-29832-3

In this breezy book, Laslocky collects tales of history’s greatest love affairs gone awry, and offers advice from music, science, and personal experience (according to her bio, she’s “been dumped at least a dozen times, including on my birthday”) on how to get over the end of an affair. After a quick gloss over the history of romantic love, Laslocky showcases just how tough some loves can be, from Héloïse and Abelard’s forbidden romance in 12th-century Paris, to relationships so dysfunctional—like Lord Byron and Lady Caroline Lamb’s—that their dissolution is worthy of applause. Though practical advice on how to cope with heartbreak comprises little more than books, movies, and music suggestions, there’s plenty of warmth and humor. If nothing else, the long list of folks who survived love lends credit to Laslocky’s view of heartbreak as “transformative,” and reminds readers that though they are lonely, they are certainly not alone. Agent: Lindsay Edgecombe, Levine Greenberg Literary Agency. (Jan.)