Description

‘A work of genius… It would not be humanly possible for me to recommend his work more highly’ India Knight
‘Left me feeling wiser and more open to life’ Oliver Burkeman

Luminous and necessary stories from the psychoanalyst’s consulting room; on desire, heartbreak and learning how to love.

When it comes to love why do we find things so difficult? Drawing on over forty years of candid and surprising conversations with his patients, Stephen Grosz asks, what gets in the way of our falling in love? And what must we do to stay there?

In the intimate space of the consulting room, we meet the woman who can’t post her wedding invitations but then, decades later, can’t decide whether to get divorced; the friendship group that explodes when an adulterous affair begins; and the man whose partner’s death is almost too much to bear.

As an analyst, Grosz’s unerring ability is to locate what ails the heartsick. As a writer, he elegantly shows how we can deploy the agonies of love as tools for understanding.

The labour of love is the work of a lifetime but in finally learning to see ourselves and our world clearly, we find we are truly ready to love one another.

‘This is a beautiful book’ Nigella Lawson
‘This man could save your marriage’ Sunday Times
‘Stephen Grosz … is one of the best at writing about psychoanalysis’ The Times
‘Powerful and compelling’ Guardian

Publisher Review

‘This is a beautiful book’ * Nigella Lawson * ‘This is a special book, full of little epiphanies. Grosz combines illuminating stories from therapy with such beautiful writing that you forget these people are his patients and not fictional characters. He reminds us how complex love is, how much it requires of us, and how many times we can misunderstand each other – and ourselves – in the process. It’s a love story about the relationship between lovers, between a therapist and patient, and between us all, if we are brave enough to attempt it’ * Natasha Lunn, author of Conversations on Love * ‘Grosz’s transfixing stories will increase your openness to and aptitude for the greatest of all emotions: you will be better at love after you read this book’ * Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon * Chilling, moving, unforgettably… what a privilege it is for the reader to catch a glimpse of this process * Guardian * Love’s Labour is a hopeful book and all the more convincingly so because it promises relatively small shifts rather than miraculous recoveries * The Times *