Lessons in Heartbreak

Lessons in Heartbreak by Cathy Kelly

Set in New York City and Tamarin, Ireland, this novel follows the lives of three women: eighty-year-old Lily, Lily’s granddaughter Izzie, a 39-year-old model booking agent, and Izzie’s aunt Anneliese, who is adjusting to life on her own after her husband of 30 years leaves her for her best friend. When Lily suffers a stroke and is in a coma, she utters a name—Jamie—that means nothing to her relatives, but through several flashbacks to her training as a nurse during World War II, readers are swept into the terror of 1940s London, complete with bombings and air raids, to discover the meaning of the name. While Lily lies in a hospital bed, Anneliese struggles with depression, triggered by her husband’s betrayal. In New York City, after being on her own for many years, Izzie falls into a relationship with a charming, earnest millionaire, who turns out to be married and more attached to his family life than Izzie at first realizes. Told in alternating chapters, Lessons in Heartbreak provides three stories of infidelity from both sides of those involved—the married wife and the other woman. Fans of chick lit and Irish novels will be delighted to find another wonderful book filled with strong female relationships and thoroughly explored secondary characters from Cathy Kelly.

This was a great book, the kind of great book that you hope never ends because you just want to keep reading more. I was fascinated by the flashbacks to London during World War II, because I am usually not a historical novel type of reader. Her WWII facts were right on, and actually gave me something to talk about with my husband, an amateur WWII buff (when I mentioned V-2s, I had to admit that I didn’t know what they were, but he was happy to provide an explanation I could understand). Maybe I should try reading more historical fiction.

This novel was a welcome return for me to Cathy Kelly, whose previous book, Always and Forever, I thoroughly enjoyed, and who I discovered in the popular Irish women’s fiction anthology, Irish Girls About Town.