RECKLESS YEARS

“What to do now, I don’t know. You see, I no longer love my husband.” So opens Heather Chaplin’s darkly funny, painfully honest memoir. A 30-something journalist living in Brooklyn, Heather finally has to acknowledge the obvious: her marriage is over, her career is stagnating, and she has more skeletons in her closet than a party supply store. When Heather finally summons the courage to leave her husband, her life turns into an emotional roller coaster she never could have anticipated. Told in a voice that is always smart and totally unpredictable, THE MOLESKINE DIARIES reads like a novel.

A 30-something journalist living in Brooklyn, Heather finally has to acknowledge the obvious: her marriage is over, her career is stagnating, and she has more skeletons in her closet than a party supply store. The good things: she has a large group of close, quirky friends, a Shiba Inu named Sakura who thinks he's too good for her, and a wry sense of humor to help get her through the hard times. When Heather finally summons the courage to leave her husband, her life turns into an emotional roller coaster she never could have anticipated. An impulsive trip to Ireland thrusts her into the orb of a magnetic man named Kieran, and for a while, it looks like love might be within Heather’s reach. But a series of setbacks dredge up dark secrets from Heather’s past, sending her into an abyss of madness. As she struggles to claw her way to the surface, she is forced to confront both the reality of her past, and the possibilities of the future.

Told in a voice that is always smart and totally unpredictable, THE MOLESKINE DIARIES reads like a novel. Equal parts comedic and heartbreaking, it is the story of divorce, loss, depression, love, and finding yourself in the most surprising of places, and in the most painful of ways.

The book will appeal to readers who loved protagonists in the tradition of Bridget Jones, but also those with an appreciation for unsettling thematic material.

Heather Chaplin is the Founding Director of the Journalism and Design program at The New School and author of the acclaimed book, Smartbomb: The Quest for Art, Entertainment, and Big Bucks in the Videogame Revolution. She is the recipient of two Knight Foundation grants in media innovation and a Ford Foundation grant about the future of the Internet and its use by public media. She has been interviewed for and cited in publications such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, Businessweek, and The Believer and has appeared on shows such as Talk of the Nation, and CBS Sunday Morning. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, GQ, Details, and Salon. She is a regular contributor on game culture for All Things Considered.