Heartsick: Three Stories about Love and Loss, and What Happens in Between

Australian writer Stephens parses the “unique and universal” effects of heartbreak in this candid debut. Having experienced the “unholy blend of grief and self-loathing” that, she writes, often follows breakups, Stephens set out to construct a book that “didn’t explain away heartbreak,” but rather delved into its complexities. She effectively does this by telling the real-life breakup stories of three individuals: 30-ish Claire, who, after moving from London to Australia, met and married her personal trainer, Maggie, despite a friend’s caution not to; Ana, a mother of three, who began an affair with her husband’s best friend after 25 years of marriage; and 20-something college student Patrick, who fell in love with a girl he couldn’t have, until she broke up with her boyfriend for him. As Stephens unspools their stories, each of which succumbs to a slow ruin brought on by doubt and insecurities, she renders in affecting scenes the tidal shifts of emotion—the sickness, the bottomless despair, the acts of self-destruction—that accompany the demise of love. Despite the book’s melancholic nature, there’s beauty in her subjects’ vulnerability and resilience. As Stephens writes, “It is only through sharing... the most tormented parts of ourselves that we’re able to discover how much we have in common.” A paean to the lovelorn, this stuns in its rawness. (June)