The Main Character

'Should I tell my story?' Louisa May Alcott, Nancy Mitford, Sylvia Plath, Nora Ephron, Carrie Fisher - some of most enduring role models for women when it comes to life-writing and autofiction. The writers who showed us how you can, in the wonderful words of Carrie Fisher, 'take your broken heart' and 'turn it into art'.

But is it that simple? Quotes like Fisher's work well on a T-shirt, but what happens when you take her at her word and try to put your life on the page? These women's books shaped Jessie as a teenager and young adulthood and she returns to their life and work now. In this delightfully readable book, she explores the novels and biographies of her five literary role models, seeking to disentangle truths from trends in a way that will be appealing, not only to the women of her own millennial generation but to older and younger generations too. Both a bibliomemoir about life-writing and a fascinating group biography of a seminal set of women, The Broken Heart Art Club shows us how to hold our role models to account but still be guided by them.