What to do when you get dumped A guide to unbreaking your heart

Reporter and publisher Hopkins' second collaboration with her illustrator daughter Bateman is as heartfelt and practical as What to Do When I'm Gone (2018). While Bateman's worries about someday living without her mom inspired that book, this time mother and daughter confront an ending that's already occurred--Hopkins' sudden split from her husband and Bateman's father--to help readers through similar grief. Structured as a countdown in days to getting over X (a stand in for your ex), Hopkins' typed-text advice begins on day 1,582 (aka immediately post-breakup) in full panic mode. Bateman's accompanying cartoons show a woman vomiting before lying on the bathroom floor, counting out loud, "to hear the sound of a human voice that's not leaving you." At first daily, updates become less frequent as healing, however slowly, occurs. Hopkins nimbly treads the line between personal and universal, sharing profound self-realizations alongside solid advice (hint: break stuff) while Bateman's light, joyful illustrations often incorporate all kinds of (former) couples. Part graphic memoir, part self-help guide, their book will make any "dumpee" feel less alone.

Hopkins and her daughter, New Yorker cartoonist Bateman, follow up What to Do When I'm Gone with another heartfelt and witty mash-up of advice and memoir, this time on how to navigate romantic breakups. After her husband of 30 years leaves her for an old flame, Hopkins embarks on a journey of grief, rage, misery--and, eventually, healing. The countdown to "unbreak a heart" begins, she explains, when one emerges from the initial "toxic cloud." From there, Hopkins offers a cathartic catalog of her own travails and a step-by-step instruction manual. Immediately after getting dumped, she advises, one should panic, take cover (hiding under a pile of blankets is an option), and climb aboard the "heartbreak express" to commune with fellow sufferers. But as time heals their wounds, the lovelorn can open back up by seeking beauty in the world, saying "yes" to new things, and ultimately finding a way to "forgive or forget." Hopkins's simple, vulnerable, and sometimes sarcastic instructions are accompanied by Bateman's lightly humorous drawings, with scenes ranging from close-ups of women sobbing, to dishes piled up in a sink, a dog game show host on a wheel of outcomes, and a roller coaster labeled "brace yourself." For any reader reeling from a split, this is a tender embrace from someone who's been there. Agent: Kate McKean, Howard Morhaim Literary. (Jan.)