-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
by Emily Giffin
"Giffin excels at creating complex characters and stories that ask us to explore what we really want from our lives." - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tessa Russo is the mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Despite her own mother's warnings, Tessa has recently given up her career to focus on her family and the pursuit of domestic happiness. From the outside, she seems destined to live a charmed life.
Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie--a boy who has never known his father. After too many disappointments, she has given up on romance--and even to some degree, friendships--believing that it is always safer not to expect too much.
Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, the two have relatively little in common aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined.
In alternating, pitch-perfect points of view, Emily Giffin creates a moving, luminous story of good people caught in untenable circumstances. Each being tested in ways they never thought possible. Each questioning everything they once believed. And each ultimately discovering what truly matters most.
"Starred Review. Giffin’s talent lies in making her characters believable and relatable, and readers will be enthralled by this layered, absorbing novel." - Booklist
"[A] modern-day Jane Austen." - Vanity Fair
"Giffin uses her great wit and gift of storytelling to weave a tale that's nuanced, empathetic and, at times, heartbreaking." - Associated Press
"Giffin displays her trademark ability to capture the complexities of human emotions while telling a rip-roaring tale." - Washington Post
"Giffin excels at creating complex characters and stories that ask us to explore what we really want from our lives." - Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This information about Heart of the Matter was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Emily Giffin is the New York Times bestselling author of Something Borrowed (which was also made into a movie and released in May 2011), Something Blue, Baby Proof and Love The One You're With. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and three young children. Her eighth novel is First Comes Love (2016).
If you liked Heart of the Matter, try these:
by Bryan Washington
Published 2026
A life-affirming novel of family, mending, and how we learn to love, from the award-winning Bryan Washington.
by Rufi Thorpe
Published 2025
A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman's attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world—from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.
After the Funeral and Other Stories
by Tessa Hadley
Published 2024
A masterful collection of stories that plumb the depths of everyday life to reveal the shifting tides and hidden undercurrents of ordinary relationships.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
