How to Fall Out of Love Madly: A Novel

Three relatable thirty somethings drive this ode to womanhood. Learning the hard way to love themselves, the women teach invaluable lessons.People Everyone who loves Sally Rooney should be reading Jana Casale!Julie Buntin, author of Marlena Three women confront the compromises theyve made to appease the men they love. Joy and Annie are friends and roommates whose thirty-something lives arent exactly what theyd imagined. To make ends meet, they decide to rent their extra bedroom to Theo, who charms Joy with his salt-and-pepper hair and adoration of their one-eyed cat. When Annie goes to live with her boyfriend, Theo and Joy settle into a comfortable domesticity. Then Theo brings home Celine, the girlfriend hes never mentioned, who is possibly the most stunning woman Joy has ever seen. Joy resolves to do whatever it takes to hold on to him, falling ever deeper into an emotional hellscape of her own making. She is too obsessed to realize that Celines beauty doesnt protect her from pain. Haunted by an event from her past, Celine cant escape her shame and finds herself in an endless cycle of self-sabotage. Annie is baffled by Joys senseless devotion to Theo, but shes consumed by her own obsessions: she cant stop parsing her commitment-phobic boyfriends texts in an exhausting mission to maintain his approval. At work, where she fully embraces her natural assertiveness, Annie is a star. But when an anonymous letter lands on her desk accusing her esteemed and supportive boss of sexual misconduct, she is forced to decide who and what shes willing to stand up for. Perceptive, mordantly funny, and full of heart, How to Fall Out of Love Madly examines womens many relationshipswith one another, their mothers, their work, men, and themselvesto reveal their underlying power and complexity. It asks, why do so many smart, compassionate, otherwise empowered women tolerate egregious behavior from the men they love? And what will it take for them to reclaim control?