In this semi-autobiographical novel, Nora Ephron introduces Rachel Samstat, a successful food writer who is seven months pregnant when she discovers her husband is in love with another woman.
Ephron’s iconic wit transforms the agony of betrayal into a sharp, hilarious, and deeply relatable account of a marriage’s collapse, complete with recipes that punctuate the emotional journey.
This novel follows recently separated Dr. Toby Fleishman as he dives into the bewildering world of app-based dating and single fatherhood in New York City. His summer of liberation is cut short when his ex-wife, Rachel, vanishes without a trace, forcing him to confront the full story of their marriage.
Brodesser-Akner brilliantly shifts perspectives to deliver a profound, funny, and incisive look at modern divorce, gender roles, and the narratives we tell ourselves.
A cultural touchstone, this novel tells the story of Ted Kramer, a work-obsessed ad executive whose wife, Joanna, leaves him and their young son to find herself. Ted is forced to become the primary parent he never was, forging a deep bond with his son, only to have his world upended when Joanna returns to demand custody.
It is a poignant and groundbreaking exploration of fatherhood, custody battles, and the shifting definitions of family.
This classic dark comedy chronicles the horrifyingly bitter divorce of Barbara and Jonathan Rose. Once passionately in love, their shared home becomes a literal battlefield as they refuse to give it up.
Adler masterfully illustrates how love can curdle into an all-consuming hatred, as each spouse devises increasingly destructive schemes in an unforgettable and cautionary tale of marital warfare.
This novel explores a marriage fractured not by choice, but by injustice. Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of the new South when Roy is wrongly convicted of a crime and sentenced to twelve years in prison.
Jones provides a powerful and heartbreaking look at how external forces can mandate a separation, forcing a kind of divorce that neither partner wanted and examining love’s capacity to endure an unbearable strain.
Commonwealth begins with a single illicit kiss at a christening party that dismantles two marriages and binds two families together for decades.
Patchett masterfully traces the sprawling consequences of this single act of infidelity, exploring how divorce and remarriage create a new, complicated web of relationships between step-siblings and parents. The novel is a profound meditation on the secrets, loyalties, and long-lasting fallout that shape a blended family.
After a contentious divorce leaves him with limited access to his children, out-of-work actor Daniel Hillard devises an audacious plan. He transforms himself into Madame Doubtfire, a formidable Scottish nanny, to get hired by his ex-wife and remain in his children's lives.
Anne Fine blends laugh-out-loud humor with genuine pathos to explore the desperation of a loving parent and the absurd lengths one will go to preserve family bonds.
Told in a series of spare, lyrical fragments, this novel offers a powerfully intimate autopsy of a marriage in decay. The narrator, known only as "the wife," chronicles the slow drift into alienation, the sting of infidelity, and the struggle to hold a family together.
Offill captures the quiet, internal chaos of a relationship’s end, creating a devastatingly precise portrait of love, disillusionment, and what remains after the bond is broken.
Over the course of a single summer day, Elle Bishop must make an impossible choice: stay with her beloved husband, Peter, or leave him for her childhood sweetheart, Jonas, with whom she has just rekindled a passionate affair.
The narrative flashes back through fifty years of family secrets, trauma, and love, making the potential for divorce the central, ticking clock of the novel. It is a gripping examination of how the past shapes present choices and the devastating consequences of either path.
While not about a legal divorce, this literary masterpiece is one of the most profound examinations of a relationship's end ever written. Set in London during and after World War II, the novel follows writer Maurice Bendrix as he obsessively investigates why his lover, Sarah, abruptly ended their affair.
It is a searing exploration of love, jealousy, faith, and the agonizing process of emotional separation that feels as final and absolute as any decree.
This witty novel of manners explores the clash between American and French sensibilities when it comes to love, sex, and separation.
When the pregnant Isabel Walker arrives in Paris to support her sister, Roxeanne, whose French husband has just left her for another woman, she is plunged into a world of family intrigue, property disputes, and baffling cultural codes. Johnson uses the divorce as a lens to satirize national perspectives on marriage and infidelity.
Gracie Pollock’s life is upended when her powerful movie-executive husband unceremoniously dumps her. Cast out from the exclusive bubble of Hollywood society, she must navigate life as a "starter wife," rebuilding her identity outside the shadow of her famous ex.
Grazer provides a sharp, satirical, and surprisingly moving look at reinvention, friendship, and finding independence after a high-profile divorce.
Spanning four decades, this epic novel follows two neighboring families, the Gleesons and the Stanhopes, whose lives are irrevocably entwined by a single night of violence. The tragedy creates a rift that leads to separation and divorce, with consequences that ripple through the lives of their children, Peter and Kate.
Keane delivers an intimate story of resilience, forgiveness, and the enduring impact of a fractured marriage on the next generation.
Three very different women—a first wife, a second wife, and a third wife—are brought together at their late ex-husband's Nantucket beach cottage to honor his last wish. As the weekend unfolds, old rivalries, resentments, and painful secrets surface.
Hilderbrand skillfully captures the complex, messy, and enduring ties that bind a family together, even long after divorce has pulled it apart.
Emma Montague moves from a high-powered banking job in London to a quiet coastal town in Connecticut, where she falls for her landlord, Dominic. Their budding romance is complicated by the omnipresent shadow of his manipulative ex-wife, who uses their children to maintain control.
Green portrays the realistic challenges of building a new life and relationship while navigating the emotional minefield left behind by a previous marriage.
Set in 1805 at a boarding school in York, this historical novel imagines the intense, secret love affair between two teenagers: the orphaned, biracial heiress Eliza Raine and the iconoclastic Anne Lister.
When their relationship is discovered, they are torn apart in a brutal separation that functions as a kind of divorce, marking both women for life. It is a devastating story of first love and the forced, heartbreaking end of a union that society refuses to recognize.