In Heartbreak Craig Raines startlingly moving intellectually nimble sexually candid wickedly funny first novel the central character is not a person but an invisible metaphor heartbreak Through the stories of a virtuoso cast of characters among them a physically scarred academic a strangely beautiful young girl with Downs syndrome a worldrenowned actress and a brilliant Czech poet Heartbreak investigates one of the most elusive yet deeply felt of human conditions It is a compassionate and textured novel about what happens to us when love and loss collide