Notes on Heartbreak - by Annie Lord (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A Debutiful Best Nonfiction Book of the Year

"If you've ever lurked on an ex's Instagram or obsessed over how a relationship fell apart, Notes on Heartbreak might be for you." - Marie Claire

"Arresting and vivid, raw and breathtaking . . . told with stunning originality. Annie Lord is a phenomenal talent." ―Dolly Alderton, author of Everything I Know About Love

"An electrifying debut." ―Caroline O'Donoghue, author of The Rachel Incident

With the incisive wit and depth of Dolly Alderton and Sally Rooney, a fierce, funny, and unflinching memoir about the exhilaration of love and the pain of its ending, from an acclaimed British Vogue writer.

You never forget your first love--or your first true heartbreak. Annie Lord is going through a devastating breakup after a five-year relationship with someone she thought she'd be with forever. Try as she might, she can't stop reliving the past, obsessively examining every moment that led to this point.

When she's not having disastrous rebound sex or stalking her ex on Instagram, Annie puts every moment of their history under a microscope, trying to understand where things went wrong and why. The answers, when they come, will surprise her as much as anyone.

Notes on Heartbreak is an engrossing and emotionally evocative account of love and loss that will resonate with anyone who has ever nursed a broken heart, been in a codependent relationship, or has come to understand that romantic partnerships are infinitely more complex than what we experience in the moment. It is a deeply personal and insightful book about the best and worst of love and how it can upend our lives: the euphoria and the desolation, the beauty and the cruelty.

Review Quotes

"Arresting and vivid, raw and breathtaking . . . told with stunning originality. Annie Lord is a phenomenal talent." --Dolly Alderton, author of Everything I Know About Love

"An electrifying debut." --Caroline O'Donoghue, author of The Rachel Incident

"A raw and riveting take on love, loss, and moving on. . . . A smart, generous look at emotional devastation and recovery that will steal readers' hearts." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"This will be the new guidebook that friends pass to each other after a bad breakup; highly recommended." --Library Journal, starred review

"In [Annie Lord's] beautifully written memoir Notes on Heartbreak, the Vogue columnist turns her private life and the turbulent end to her relationship into a bittersweet romance story. . . . Lord writes as though she is texting a close friend, very candid, quite self-deprecating, and often chaotic. But emotionally, the novel reads like when a good night out is over, and you know the feeling won't come back again. . . . Her honesty is purely raw, but never too bleak; it's heartbreak with a sweet cookie on the side, humor and self-pity mixed with self-awareness. . . . Notes on a Heartbreak is a reminder that falling apart can be formative, and even as romantic as falling in love." --Up & Coming Magazine

"If you've ever lurked on an ex's Instagram or obsessed over how a relationship fell apart, Notes on Heartbreak might be for you. . . . Throughout the memoir, Lord takes a hard look at how, increasingly, people are less willing to be vulnerable when dating. This stays with her as she begins to understand and appreciate the other side of heartbreak: that she's hurt because she took a risk. That she leapt into love without a net, enabling her to experience deep care and connection, if only for a time. Read this if you still crash out to the '90s Romeo + Juliet soundtrack (which is totally worth revisiting, if not)." --Marie Claire

"Love stinks. If you need to laugh and feel connected after heartbreak, this is the book for you. I wish I had this in my 20s, and maybe I wouldn't have been such a wet blanket. Lord gets love... and heartbreak... and picking yourself up after both." --Debutiful, "The Best Debut Nonfiction of 2026 So Far"