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During the summer before her fortieth birthday, Susan Shapiro begins a long, emotional
journey. Unable to get pregnant—or to find a publisher for her latest book—she finds
herself looking back on her life, wondering where she went wrong. She’s got a wonderful
husband, Aaron—but his career as a comedy writer forces him to travel almost constantly,
and they can’t seem to have a child. She’s got a successful career as a freelance
journalist—but no matter how hard she tries, she can’t get a book published.
Then in walks Brad—her on-again-off-again boyfriend who began messing
with her head when she was sixteen. Brad calls to ask for her help in promoting
his new book, and their meeting leads Susan to begin a search for the five great
heartbreaks in her life—to figure out where things went wrong. There’s Brad, who’s still
single and still eager to mess with her head. There’s George, her last boyfriend before
she met Aaron, who unexpectedly moved on to someone else and is now living with his wife
and kid in Brooklyn. There’s Tom, “the nice one,” who helped her rebound from another
breakup. There’s Richard, the older man who encouraged her career and left her for
another woman. And there’s David, her first love, who ended up sleeping with her college
roommate(s).
Like Rob Gordon in Nick Hornby’s novel, High
Fidelity, Susan learns that memories of old relationships aren’t always accurate—and
she wasn’t always the only one left with a broken heart. In fact, she often discovers
that she was the real problem.
In her memoir, Shapiro, a
self-proclaimed “serial monogamist love junkie,” obsessively over-analyzes herself and
her exes and writes about her journey with honesty and a strong sense of humor. Readers
follow along as she runs the gamut of emotions—the laughter, the tears, and the
soul-searching—and as she learns important lessons about herself and those she loves.
It’s like reality TV—only more real. Five Men Who Broke My Heart will keep you
laughing while forcing you to take a new look at old heartbreaks—and at the relationships
that really matter.
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