Heartbreak

Twenty-five years of marriage end abruptly, and journalist Florence Williams braces for sadness but not for the physical toll that follows, which lands her in a hospital bed. Rather than simply endure the breakup, she turns her own collapse into an investigation. She examines how the body's cells respond to loneliness, visits researchers working on what they call social pain, and asks why a broken heart hurts so badly and which popular beliefs about it are mistaken.

Her search for answers is also a search for ways to recover. She has her blood tested for genetic markers linked to grief, sits through electric shocks in a laboratory while looking at photographs of her former partner, and heads into the wilderness to see whether awe can counteract isolation. Each step mixes reporting with self-experiment, testing both what science says and what might actually help her heal.

The book combines science writing with a personal story of loss and self-discovery. It explores how loneliness affects health and what our attachments reveal about falling in and out of love, and it will appeal to readers interested in the biology of emotion as well as to those drawn to candid, first-person accounts of heartbreak.