How to break your own heart

Plot

Amelia Bradlow seems to have everything she needs to be happy - a handsome husband, a beautiful home, money, good looks and a glamour job. Everything, that is, except the thing she wants most - a baby. Ed, her husband, is funny, affectionate and sophisticated but simply not interested in parenthood. He likes his life neat and tidy. And he likes having a wife who attends solely to his needs. As she approaches 37, Amelia is faced with a life-changing decision, aided and abetted by Kiki, her hopelessly disorganised but ridiculously rich friend. Should Amelia stay in her nearly happy marriage, or expose herself to the vagaries of single life and the distant possibility of meeting someone who wants to start a family? Maggie Alderson brings her deep understanding of the human heart to this new novel about the compromises we make in life, and about those rare moments of grace when we decide to risk everything for the chance to be truly, madly and deeply happy.