ShortBookandScribes #BookReview – Instructions for Heartbreak by Sarah Handyside

Instructions for Heartbreak by Sarah Handyside will be published tomorrow (30th January) by Pan Macmillan in hardcover, eBook and audiobook. My thanks to Chloe Davies for the proof copy.

A beautiful, razor-sharp novel by Sarah Handyside, Instructions for Heartbreak is a life-affirming story about female friendship, self-love and how to survive a broken heart.

What if heartbreak came with a manual?

It starts with a late-night knock on the door. Dee, Liv and Rosa share a flat in south London, while Katie lives close by with her boyfriend. But, when Katie’s nine-year relationship ends – suddenly and brutally – she turns up on their doorstep with no idea what to do next, or how to do anything after spending so long with her life entwined with someone else’s.

Out comes the martini shaker (an old, well-washed gherkin jar) and, with an unused sketchbook, an idea. They’ll make Katie the handbook that she needs to process her heartbreak and start rebuilding her life. There are notes on tears, hangovers and roast chicken, scribblings about music, new bedding and pure, white-hot rage.

But Katie is not the only one nursing a broken heart. Rosa is a hopeless romantic, despite still reeling from her ex’s infidelity. Scarred by her ex’s parting words, Dee is committed to being commitment-free. And while Liv knows that breaking up with her girlfriend was what she wanted, she can’t help but wonder if she did the right thing.

Tested by big life changes, even the closest friendships can fray – could the heartbreak handbook they intended for Katie contain the words they all need to hear?

Instructions for Heartbreak follows four friends: Dee, Rosa, Liv and Katie. It’s Katie’s heartbreak after her relationship with Chris comes to an end that leads the women to embark on a handbook to help her to get over the break-up. The other three women have all been in a similar situation whilst Katie was the one who was most settled, and so they’re well-placed to offer advice, comfort and tissues.

This is a lovely story, really heart-warming, and a great debut from Sarah Handyside. It’s about female friendship, the trials and tribulations of getting out there and starting to date again (use a dating app or just hope to bump into someone down the pub?), and in a way it’s about growing up, that point where you’re about to leave your twenties behind and the future looms ahead – it’s time to take everything more seriously.

I can really see this story making a good TV series, along the lines of Everything I Know About Love, to which it’s been compared. I enjoyed reading the women’s stories as they navigated love, work and family.

Sarah Handyside is a Northumbrian in London, a former communications consultant and a current government policy advisor. She lives with her husband and two children. The opening pages of Instructions for Heartbreak were longlisted for the Curtis Brown First Novel Award.