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HEARTBREAK

Florence Williams

A Personal and Scientific Journey

Florence Williams explores the fascinating, cutting-edge science of heartbreak while seeking creative ways to mend her own.
When her twenty-five-year marriage suddenly falls apart, journalist Florence Williams expects the loss to hurt. But when she starts feeling physically sick, losing weight and sleep, she sets out in pursuit of rational explanation. She travels to the frontiers of the science of "social pain" to learn why heartbreak hurts so much - and why so much of the conventional wisdom about it is wrong. Soon Williams finds herself on a surprising path that leads her from neurogenomic research laboratories to trying MDMA in a Portland therapist's living room, from divorce workshops to the mountains and rivers that restore her. She tests her blood for genetic markers of grief, undergoes electrical shocks while looking at pictures of her ex, and discovers that our immune cells listen to loneliness. Searching for insight as well as personal strategies to game her way back to health, she seeks out new relationships and ventures into the wilderness in search of an extraordinary antidote: awe. With warmth, daring, wit, and candor, Williams offers a gripping account of grief and healing. Heartbreak is a remarkable merging of science and self-discovery that will change the way we think about loneliness, health, and what it means to fall in and out of love. Florence Williams is the author of Breasts, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and The Nature Fix. A contributing editor at Outside magazine, her writing has appeared in the New York Times, National Geographic, and many other outlets. She lives in Washington, DC.
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Published 2022-02-01 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. - New York (USA)

Comments

My husband walked out. This is what heartbreak did to my body Florence Williams was left physically ill by her divorce. To cure herself, she tried everything from hallucinogens to casual sex Read more...

Excerpt: The Research On How Awe & Openness Can Help Us Bounce Back From Heartbreak Read more...

I tore through this book, unable to do anything else. Even sleep. Florence Williams has taken the most common form of psychic pain - heartbreak, her heartbreak - and transformed it into a meditative masterwork on what it means to live a good life, with biological and genetic markers and dozens of scientific studies to back up her claims. Awe: remember this word. You will feel it at the end of this book, and it could save your life.

NPR Fresh Air, interview (Feb 1, 2022) Read more...

[A] show-stopping, offbeat story about the science of heartbreak... Unflagging research - [Williams] even flies to London to interview Britain's first 'minister of loneliness' - and the author's vulnerability make for an impressive and moving survey. This is a courageous, whirlwind tale of healing and self-discovery. Read more...

In Heartbreak (Norton, Feb.), journalist Williams recounts her divorce and digs into the science of broken hearts. Read more...

Author's article: Op-Ed: Heartbreak hurts, in part because our cells 'listen for loneliness' Read more...

Essay by author: How (Almost) Risking My Life Healed My Heartbreak Read more...

This surprisingly frank and funny book is what happens when a formidable science journalist turns her powers of observation and inquiry on her own broken heart.

Heartbreak by Florence Williams is a graceful account of losing a marriage and finding another way of being. With vulnerability and veracity, Williams seeks various modes of understanding the physicality of loss. Whoever has felt the blistering heat of a broken heart will thank Florence Williams for a clear moving river of discoveries.

article featuring Heartbreak as one of their February must-reads: I literally feel like I had my own heart broken after wading through Florence's midlife love loss. And I say wading on purpose; Florence turns to nature, often water, to get her through. An experienced nature writer, Florence reports on her own crushing heartbreak and the aftermath, new dalliances, research she discovers (why all the studies on love?), friendships and finding herself again on her journey to understanding. ...Amazing. Read more...

Complex and thoughtfully researched, [Heartbreak] appealingly chronicles healing from emotional loss and offers fascinating scientific insights into the mechanics and impacts of romantic grief. A provocative and rewarding reading experience.

First Serial Excerpt: THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON HEARTBREAK - Love changes us at a physiological level, making us more sensitive to joy - and to pain. ... Read more...

Florence Williams was left physically ill by her divorce. To cure herself, she tried everything from hallucinogens to casual sex ... Read more...

What a powerful book. Williams captures the heartache of divorce and the crooked road back to living. Colorful, imaginative and poignant - Heartbreak tells a gripping story of courage, sex, and adventure packed with all the newest hard science on romance and attachment. I've studied love for over 40 years and I was taking notes. It's a magnificent, wise, and remarkable read!