A previous generation of divorce memoirs promised a happy ending at the end of the rainbow. Elizabeth Gilbert’s blockbuster memoir Eat, Pray, Love took her readers on an international voyage of self-discovery, and it ultimately ends with her finding love again at her final destination in Bali (though, interestingly enough, that romance also led to Gilbert’s second divorce in 2016). Glennon Doyle’s wildly successful Untamed interweaves stories of life after divorce to her husband and new lessons from her subsequent marriage to soccer icon Abby Wambach.
But this new crop of divorce memoirs make no such promises, Smith said.
“I think what we’re seeing now is the story is coming from women who find themselves, either by choice or not by choice, having to sort of build a different kind of life for themselves, who find a way to recalibrate or reinvent themselves or start over or ground themselves in what they know to be true about themselves,” she said. “These are human stories where we get to see people go through upheaval and not necessarily come out great. They don’t have to have happy endings.”
Talking with these authors and other fans of the subgenre, we struggled to think of a male author whose divorce book achieved the same level of prominence. Perhaps that ubiquity is its own sign of progress, Lenz said.
“When my book came out, Leslie Jamison’s book came out on the same day,” she recalled. “People said “Isn’t it crazy? Two divorce books hit the bestseller list!’ and I said, ‘World War II Books do this all the time.’”
The Essential Divorce Reading List
If you want to dive deep on this burgeoning subgenre, we’ve compiled a handful of books to help you get started: from the early days of the divorce memoir to today’s blockbuster hits.
This 1929 novel details the dissolution of a “modern” marriage amidst the splashy background of Jazz Age New York. Parrot originally published it anonymously, but once word of her authorship got out, she became an international icon of divorce.
While Tendler’s 2024 book doesn’t explicitly address her divorce from comedian John Mulaney, the various specters of her romantic relationships loom large in this story of hospitalization and healing.
Ephron may be best known for reinventing the romantic comedy on screen. Her 1983 novel — itself inspired by her marriage to legendary journalist Carl Bernstein — carries the humor and tenderness fans later came to love in such classic films Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail.
In this 2012 memoir, Rachel Cusk chronicles life after a decade of marriage — and how she works to remake life for herself as well as her daughters.
Lenz’s 2024 book tells multiple stories: the personal story of her own marriage and how it broke apart; the reported story of how Americans think about divorce; and the sociological story of women’s quest for power in a patriarchal world.
When Harper’s husband told her he couldn’t move with her to support her career as an emergency room doctor, she filed for divorce. Her 2020 book shares lessons from patients, colleagues and others she meets on her path back to happiness.
Strayed’s 2012 memoir chronicles her physical and emotional journey on an 1,100-mile trek from California to Washington state. The book inspired a book club boom, a flood of hikers on the Pacific Crest Trail and, later, an award-winning movie starring Reese Witherspoon.
Finnamore had achieved previous acclaim for Otherwise Engaged, her novel about wedding culture and all its accompanying anxieties. Her 2008 divorce memoir examined that obsession on the other side of her husband’s marriage-ending affair.
Patchett’s 2013 book examines not one but two marriages — her tumultuous first one, then her much happier second one. She also writes of other long-lasting relationships with friends, family and even her Nashville bookstore.
Koul won readers with her hilarious and cutting collection of essays, One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter. Her 2025 collection will explore divorce, loss and more with that same signature style.
One could say Levy’s 2018 book is less divorce memoir and more cultural criticism. She writes of how she and other creatives, including James Baldwin and Elena Ferrante, struggle to balance their artistic and personal lives.
Smith’s 2023 book takes its title from a line in “Good Bones,” her viral poem. But the acclaimed poet turned to the form of memoir to write of her divorce and life afterwards.
After divorcing a fellow writer, Jamison struggles to balance life as a newly single mother with her own dreams of romance and art. Her 2024 memoir is at times painful, funny and brilliant — sometimes all within a single page.
Mlotek’s memoir won’t hit bookshelves until 2025, but other writers are already praising her incisive look at a life shaped by divorce and its ripple effects.
This 2006 blockbuster memoir spans three countries, diverse cultures and romantic epiphanies. Gilbert later wrote of her post-Eat, Pray, Love celebrity in two subsequent books, Committed and Big Magic.
