Skip to content
Account Login Winnipeg Toll-Free: 1-800-561-1833 SK Toll-Free: 1-877-506-7456 Contact & Locations

parsed(2023-01-10) - pubdate: 01/23
turn:
pub date: 1673330400
today: 1711688400, pubdate > today = false

nyp: 0;

Heartbroken

Field Notes on a Constant Condition

January 10, 2023 | Trade paperback
ISBN: 9781039005761
$24.95
Reader Reward Price: $22.46 info
Out of stock. Available to order from publisher. We will confirm shipping time when order has been placed.
Checking Availibility...

Description

Imbued with longing, erudition and hard-earned wisdom, Heartbroken dares to delve into a universal ordeal--perhaps the one that makes us the most human of all.

When Laura Pratt's long-distance partner of six years tells her "it's over" at a busy downtown train station, she is sent reeling, the breakup coming out of the blue. He, meanwhile, closes himself off, refusing to acknowledge Laura and her requests for explanation.

In the following days, months and then years, Laura struggles to make sense of this sudden ending, alone and filled with questions. A journalist, she seeks to understand the freefall that is heartbreak and how so many before her survived it, drawing on forces across time and form, and uncovers literary, philosophical, scientific and psychological accounts of the mysterious alchemy of how we human beings fall in love in the first place, and why, when it ends, some of us take longer to get over it, or never do. She weaves this background of cultural history with her own bracing story of passionate love and its loss, and offers some hope for arriving--changed, broadened, grateful--on the other side.

About this Author

LAURA PRATT is a long-time journalist, writer and editor. She writes for Canadian magazines and edits books. Her first memoir, The Fleeting Years, was published in 2004. She lives in Toronto with whichever of her kids and dogs she can corral to join her. She's a 2020 graduate of the University of King's College's creative nonfiction MFA. She won an honourable mention in Prairie Fire's 2020 CNF contest and was shortlisted for The Fiddlehead's 2019 CNF contest. She has served as a judge at the National Magazine Awards for several years.

ISBN: 9781039005761
Format: Trade paperback
Pages: 304
Publisher: Random House of Canada
Published: 2023-01-10

Reviews

PRAISE FOR HEARTBROKEN:

"Pratt candidly takes us through the throes of heartbreak.... Her language is raw and emotional, her journey entirely relatable. She tempers this emotion with a journalistic approach to dealing with heartbreak, including data, quotes, studies and cultural references about love, loss, grief and moving on. I'm sure many of us can see ourselves in Pratt when we too were at the lowest of our low following a split." --The Toronto Star

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR HEARTBROKEN:


"With lyrical prose and startling honesty, Laura Pratt writes about a familiar condition. Who among us has not been heartbroken? But despite the common thread running through this memoir, I've never read anything like it. There is such rare beauty in the candid generosity of Pratt's words as she invites us to indulge our broken hearts, then take the pieces and build something new with the knowledge she has shared. Many will feel seen and comforted by this beautiful work of emotional art." --Marissa Stapley, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky
 
"Laura Pratt is a marvelous writer. If you're reeling from a fresh heartbreak--or still mystified by the impact of ancient one--Heartbroken will help you heal it. This is an astonishingly generous and profoundly intelligent book filled with arresting insights. It lets you in on the author's own exquisite heartache and reckoning with it, while allowing you to more deeply understand your own relationship with loves lost. I devoured it." --Haley McGee, author of The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale

"Beautifully lyrical, astonishingly honest and sparkling with humour and insight, Heartbroken changed the way I think about love and loss. In it, Laura Pratt gathers poets, philosophers, songwriters and scientists across the ages to help her explore and map the heart's deepest valleys. It is an achingly generous, riveting tale filled with solace and grace."
--Kim Pittaway, co-author of Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement

"With passion, courage and curiosity, Laura Pratt plunges into the deepest waters of loss and brings back a gift for all lovelorn readers who are plain fed up with being urged to buck up and move on. This book tells the truth: not everyone can."
--Rona Maynard, author of Starter Dog: My Path to Joy, Belonging and Loving This World

"Most of us have suffered a heartbreak, however temporary. But Laura Pratt is unique in my experience--not just for the length and depth of her heartbreak but for her brilliant, close observation of a sorrow that would not go away. Threaded with joyful memories of sex, drugs and rock and roll, Heartbroken is also an anthology of poets, philosophers, scientists and therapists who have mused on unrequited love. I can't imagine a better guide over this rough terrain than Pratt--curious, open-minded, unflinchingly honest and touchingly eloquent." --Katherine Ashenburg, author of Her Turn and The Mourner's Dance
 
"Laura Pratt is fearless with her mesmerizing account of aching vulnerability. Her commitment to honesty and authenticity is mind-blowing, and her generosity with sharing such a harrowing take on love is unparalleled. Her heart will mean the world to readers." --Anne T. Donahue, author of Nobody Cares
 
"Make no mistake, Pratt, like Elizabeth Smart, will break your heart with her raw-to-the-bone confessional. But this writing is 'smart' in another way, teasing out the literary history, psychology, and physiology of heartbreak, and the lessons learned from her chosen 'high frequency life.'" --Harry Thurston, author of Lost River: The Waters of Remembrance

If the product is in stock at the store nearest you, we suggest you call ahead to have it set aside for you, or you may place an order online and choose in-store pickup.