Prototype Diary of an Ending.

by Lina Scheynius

In Diary of an Ending, internationally renowned photographer Lina Scheynius expands her artistic vision to prose, offering an unflinching and intimate exploration of heartbreak and self-recovery.

Blurring the boundaries between diary and essay, Diary of an Ending explores the break-up of a relationship, combining extracts from Scheynius’s diary – written in Swedish and translated by Saskia Vogel – with reflective essays written in English five years on, exploring ideas about art and photography, sex and passion, the act of diary-making, destructive relationships, motherhood and home.

Interspersed with black-and-white photographs, and written with the same unashamed and unfiltered honesty that defines Scheynius’s photography, Diary of an Ending is an intimate hybrid of memoir and autofiction, a meditation on the passage of time and the transformative power of creativity.

256 pages, Paperback

Published July 9, 2025

Reviews

[Joey Pavell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gut-wrenching snapshot into heartbreak and what it can do to the soul. I thank Lina for allowing us readers in to such a vulnerable piece of her life.

[Michelle (shareorshelve) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kept coming back to this book in the same way that Lina keeps returning to A. Why do I love it? Why can’t I break free of it?

Diary of an Ending by Lina Scheynius and translated by Saskia Vogel is exactly what the title promises. Written in the months after her relationship with A ends, Lina lays her longing, anger, love, and the maddening push and pull of a toxic ex you can’t resist, bare.

Her entries are intimate, messy, sometimes hopeful, and her heartbreak is universal. We’ve all been her (and regrettably, A) at some point in our lives. Because Scheynius is a photographer, I did hope there would be more photos. The portraits were my favorites of those included.

Other than that, it was a good read and I couldn’t put it down.

[Sarah_lrz · Rating 5 out of 5]

„how we love is complicated, how we lose is complicated, too.(…) regardless of how much I learn, I can never get away from the fact that every love is going to be a loss. To love anyway, that is the challenge.”
Honestly I was drawn to this book in a bookshop in a weird way and just bought it without looking it up or peeking inside and it was really meant for me to be read in this particular time of my life. I loved it and it calmed me down in a very specific way that I can’t even understand myself

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Carmen Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quote self indulgent :(

[Franz]

scho im oktober gläsä