The D Word: Making the Ultimate Decision About Your Marriage

The Divorce Survival Guide podcaster Anthony debuts with a clear-eyed look at the process of ending one’s marriage, from the initial breakup conversation to the legal complexities of child support, asset division, and alimony. Drawing on her own divorce, Anthony details the forces that can derail a marriage. She pays particular attention to emotional, financial, and physical abuse, and provides strategies for readers to protect themselves before making the decision to leave. Later, she guides those who have decided to end their marriage on how to break the news to their kids; find a divorce attorney (couples with fewer financial assets may be able to hash things out themselves in an informal “kitchen-table” divorce); and navigate uncomfortable shared living situations. Enriching the account with intimate details of how she stewed for years before asking for a divorce in 2008, Anthony makes refreshingly clear that a happy ending means autonomy over one’s future. Still, she doesn’t skate over the challenges of recovering from even marriages long past their expiration dates (“There is grief in every transition, happy or sad,” she writes, noting that her own healing has taken “many more years than I’d ever thought possible and in many ways is ongoing”). For those who feel powerless and lost in broken marriages, Anthony shines a light. Agent: Holly Root and Alyssa Maltese, Root Literary. (Dec.)