"The Platonic ideal of an unflinching memoir...profoundly honest."
-Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Five Star Weekend
At twenty-seven, Brendan Donovan, a special educator from Boston with a sharp wit and a deep fear of getting hurt, falls hard for a Jersey girl who loves him in a way he never thought possible. Within a year, they're engaged.
But just as Brendan's life is peaking, he spirals into depression and addiction.
In an attempt to spare the love of his life from who he fears he's becoming, he tells her a lie that will haunt him forever: I don't love you.
To numb the pain of the breakup, Brendan tries Zoloft, Klonopin, cheeseburgers, poker, therapy, dating other chicks, marrying another woman, competing on The Biggest Loser, and opioids (lots and lots of opioids).
None of it works.
This book is about what happens when a man chooses to stop pretending, be vulnerable, and be honest with himself. Not only about the woman he lost, but about the person he became after losing her. You can't help but root for him, even when he makes it really, really hard to.
Hilarious, heartbreaking, and uncomfortably honest, HAPPYSAD is a story about love, regret, and the cost of lying to yourself for too long.