The Heart Broke In - Softcover

Finalist for the 2012 Costa Book of the Year, The Heart Broke In is an ambitious family drama of love, death and money in the era of gene therapy and Internet exposés

A scientist obsessed with evolution but unable to have children, a malaria researcher trying to choose between freedom and love, and a washed-up TV svengali whose life goes into free fall―The Heart Broke In follows these characters through a riveting exploration of what conscience means in the 21st century, and how we attempt to makeour lives count for something. It is a glorious drama, as well as an old fashionedtale of modern times.

When Bec Shepherd rejects marriage to a powerful newspaper editor in favour of starting a family with fellow scientist Alex, her sense of right and wrong is put to the test. Bec’s brother Ritchie has built a hugely successful career in entertainment, but allegations about his private life are threatening to destroy his marriage, his career and his mind. Does Bec and Alex’s relationship stand a chance? Will Ritchie’s indiscretions catch up with him?

JAMES MEEK is the author of four novels, including The People’s Act of Love, which won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize and the SAC Book of the Year Award, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. His novel We Are Now Beginning Our Descent won the Prince Maurice Prize. Meek worked as a reporter in Russia and Ukraine in the 1990s, and later his reporting from Iraq and about Guantánamo Bay won a number of international awards. He now lives in London.