Heart the Lover

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

‘Touching, thoughtful, a deeply affecting love story about time and regret’ DAVID NICHOLLS
‘Steeped in yearning, melancholy and the reckoning with mortality that must come to us all . . . King’s writing still pierces you’ The Times
‘Exploring how first love shapes a lifetime, here is a novel of piercing clarity’ Independent
‘Beautifully written . . . I was hooked from the first page’ Daily Mail

‘You knew I’d write a book about you someday’

Our narrator understands good love stories – their secrets, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the rules.

She was in her senior year of college when star students Sam and Yash swept her into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. Their lives became quickly intertwined – with friendship but also with unpredictable passions and the intimations of first love.

Decades later, she is a successful writer, living a comfortable life with her husband and children, when a surprise visit brings the past crashing into the present, forcing her to confront the decisions and deceptions of her youth.

Written with the precision of poetry and the emotional tide of an epic, Heart the Lover is a celebration of literature and the life-long echoes of young love. This is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
A GOOD HOUSEKEEPING GOOD BOOKS READER FAVOURITE

‘Touching, thoughtful, a deeply affecting love story about time and regret’ DAVID NICHOLLS
‘Steeped in yearning, melancholy and the reckoning with mortality that must come to us all . . . King’s writing still pierces you’ The Times
‘Exploring how first love shapes a lifetime, here is a novel of piercing clarity’ Independent
‘Beautifully written . . . I was hooked from the first page’ Daily Mail

Our narrator understands good love stories – their secrets, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the rules.

She was in her senior year of college when star students Sam and Yash swept her into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. Their lives became quickly intertwined – with friendship but also with unpredictable passions and the intimations of first love.

Decades later, she is a successful writer, living a comfortable life with her husband and children, when a surprise visit brings the past crashing into the present, forcing her to confront the decisions and deceptions of her youth.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

‘Touching, thoughtful, a deeply affecting love story about time and regret’ DAVID NICHOLLS
‘Steeped in yearning, melancholy and the reckoning with mortality that must come to us all . . . King’s writing still pierces you’ The Times
‘Exploring how first love shapes a lifetime, here is a novel of piercing clarity’ Independent
‘Beautifully written . . . I was hooked from the first page’ Daily Mail

Our narrator understands good love stories – their secrets, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the rules.

She was in her senior year of college when star students Sam and Yash swept her into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. Their lives became quickly intertwined – with friendship but also with unpredictable passions and the intimations of first love.

Decades later, she is a successful writer, living a comfortable life with her husband and children, when a surprise visit brings the past crashing into the present, forcing her to confront the decisions and deceptions of her youth.

‘You knew I’d write a book about you someday’

Our narrator understands good love stories – their secrets, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the rules.

She was in her senior year of college when star students Sam and Yash swept her into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. Their lives became quickly intertwined – with friendship but also with unpredictable passions and the intimations of first love.

Decades later, she is a successful writer, living a comfortable life with her husband and children, when a surprise visit brings the past crashing into the present, forcing her to confront the decisions and deceptions of her youth.

Written with the precision of poetry and the emotional tide of an epic, Heart the Lover is a celebration of literature and the life-long echoes of young love. This is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

‘You knew I’d write a book about you someday’

Our narrator understands good love stories – their secrets, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the rules.

She was in her senior year of college when star students Sam and Yash swept her into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. Their lives became quickly intertwined – with friendship but also with unpredictable passions and the intimations of first love.

Decades later, she is a successful writer, living a comfortable life with her husband and children, when a surprise visit brings the past crashing into the present, forcing her to confront the decisions and deceptions of her youth.

Written with the precision of poetry and the emotional tide of an epic, Heart the Lover is a celebration of literature and the life-long echoes of young love. This is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.