An acclaimed reporter takes us on an unforgettable journey that “will both break your heart and expand it” (BookPage, starred review), capturing the human capacity for love and connection against all odds.

We live in an era defined by crisis—whether it be war and displacement, growing inequality, or the powerful profiting from violence and exploitation. Celebrated international correspondent Sally Hayden has spent her career on the front lines, uncovering some of the darkest moments of our time. Yet, even in the face of unimaginable adversity, she has witnessed the incredible goodness of ordinary people.

In This Is Also a Love Story, Hayden reexamines catastrophe through the love stories she has come across. She introduces us to a mother who risks everything to save her daughter from forced marriage to Boko Haram militants, and to a group of Syrian women who have searched tirelessly for their missing spouses and children. We meet a couple separated by the invasion of Ukraine, and we learn about letters from the bereaved to the dead that are still being written over a decade after the 2011 tsunami in Japan. Through these “beautiful and harrowing” (BookPage, starred review) stories, which crisscross the globe, from Uganda to Lebanon, Ghana, Rwanda, and Iraq, Sally Hayden challenges us to reconsider what it means to be alive on this planet today.

What if news were recounted through the prism of the sacrifices we make for those we love? This Is Also a Love Story dares us to recognize how innate generosity and self-sacrifice can be found in even the most difficult of times, and, as a result, to imagine what might be needed to create a better world.