Heart: Stories of Learning to Love Again

by Kristen Couse (Editor), Kristen Couse (Editor)

Heart traces the arc from heartbreak to wholeness, with powerfully insightful selections drawn from such masters as Marcel Proust, Thomas Hardy, and Vladimir Nabokov, as well as contemporary luminaries ranging from Anne Tyler to Banana Yoshimoto. Readers can shed the incredible weight that a broken heart leaves behind via a selection from Alain de Botton’s wittily perceptive On Love, and then go on to Anita Brookner’s delightful revelations about love and loss, Alice Munro’s quietly uplifting portrait of a rejected woman finding new strength on a seaside holiday, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction of the unexpected liberation of a tortured young lover in Paris.

Genres: Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2000

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book because there are so many good authors featured in it, but, overall, I did not get from it what I had hoped. I suppose I should be glad it is not a self-help book as advertised because I am not a fan of those, but it just seems like a bunch of stories loosely about love compiled as a way for the reader to learn to love again. If you want to read some stories about the whims of the heart written by some talented writers, read this book. If you need solace or guidance after heartbreak, read some other book.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this book on my shelf, no idea where it came from. It was a slow start, but once I got to the later stories by Fitzgerald, Proust, Flaubert, and Hardy, I found it hard to put down. Especially the last story - The Waiting Supper. Almost reminded me of The Necklace.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this book shortly after getting my heart broke. It is filled with short stories written by well known authors about how people move on after the loss of a love. It is filled with hope.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dear friend got me this book after my divorce. It was so thoughtful and I really enjoyed the different stories in the book.