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No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce

No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce

by Haley Mlotek

Viking ·2025 ·304 pages ·Culture
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About This Book

"Enigmatic, opalescent, so precise." —Jia Tolentino An intimate and candid account of one of the most romantic and revolutionary of relationships: divorce Divorce was everything for Haley Mlotek. As a child, she listened to her twice-divorced grandmother tell stories about her "husbands." As a pre-teen, she answered the phones for her mother's mediation and marriage counseling practice and typed out the paperwork for couples in the process of leaving each other. She grew up with the sense that divorce was an outcome to both resist and desire, an ordeal that promised something better on the other side of something bad. But when she herself went on to marry—and then divorce—the man she had been with for twelve years, suddenly, she had to reconsider her generation's inherited understanding of the institution. Deftly combining her personal story with wry, searching social and literary exploration, No Fault is a deeply felt and radiant account of 21st century divorce—the remarkably common and seemingly singular experience, and what it reveals about our society and our desires for family, love, and friendship. Mlotek asks profound questions about what divorce should be, who it is for, and why the institution of marriage maintains its power, all while charting a poignant and cathartic journey away from her own marriage towards an unknown future. Brilliant, funny, and unflinchingly honest, No Fault is a kaleidoscopic look at marriage, secrets, ambitions, and what it means to love and live with uncertainty, betrayal, and hope.


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Reviews

"Mlotek reveals personal details piecemeal, wedging them between analyses of...cultural fanfare."

Becca Rothfeld· The Washington Post Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Devoid of both dogmatism...and heroine-ism...in a way not always true of its predecessors ..."

Hermione Hoby· Bookforum Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"It is neither chronicle, nor testimony, nor confession; rather, it is a personal and cultural inquiry into the significance of divorce, and by extension marriage, that emphatically rejects resolution ..."

Rachel Vorona Cote· The Atlantic Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"The inspection is rigorous—though not intended to be exhaustive—finding variations in narrative possibilities, subtleties in individual experiences, and imperfections in ideological positionings ..."

Winnie Wang· Los Angeles Review of Books Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"The result is an intimate, astute, and captivating inquiry into the conventions and mysteries of marriage and divorce."

Donna Seaman· Booklist Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"This raw and reflective account stands out in the crowded field of divorce memoirs."

Publishers Weekly Read review ↗ Near the Top

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