Now in paperback, this "courageous story, beautifully told" [Washington Post] offers a searing examination of a marriage coming apart piece by piece."There are those who believe it is simple selfishness that leads people to divorce. For those of us who have lived it, it's hard to see why anyone would rip out their veins for some immature or narcissistic desire to get what they want, because that is what it feels like." --from Breaking ApartPiercingly honest and profoundly moving, Wendy Swallow's memoir traces the arc of her marriage and its painful disintegration. Her journey through divorce's rough terrain--and the reconstruction of her life after divorce--offers an electrifying literary portrait of what it is to relinquish the comfort and security of a long-held dream.

Writing in a style that is both unsentimental and profoundly moving, Swallow traces the arc of her marriage to a complex man ten years her senior and explores divorce's rough terrain and the triumphant reconstruction of her life afterwards.