What do you think?
Rate this book
The Art of Falling Apart
What remains when everything falls apart and yet you keep going?
The Art of Falling Apart is a poetic exploration of loss and resilience, exhaustion, quiet hope and the fragile strength it takes to carry on. Through raw, lyrical poems written over the span of seven years, A. L. K. traces the inner landscapes of mental illness, identity, memory, and the desire to be seen without unraveling.
Structured in five thematic chapters, this collection doesn't follow a straight path toward healing. Instead, it wanders through darkness and fear, through quiet mornings and silent breakdowns, through moments of light that appear almost by accident. It is a map of coming undone and learning to live with the pieces.
These are poems for the quiet fighters. For the ones who know what it means to smile despite it all. For the ones who have stumbled, faltered, disappeared and kept breathing anyway. The words of A. L. K. are both delicate and unflinching. Her poems carry the reader through vulnerability, survival, and the flickering, stubborn flame of hope.
“Sometimes / I think: / ‘This is going to kill me.’ / And then I try my very best / to prove myself wrong.”
The Art of Falling Apart is not a story of defeat. It is a love letter to persistence. To the ones who fall apart and still choose to begin over and over again.
The Art of Falling Apart is a poetic exploration of loss and resilience, exhaustion, quiet hope and the fragile strength it takes to carry on. Through raw, lyrical poems written over the span of seven years, A. L. K. traces the inner landscapes of mental illness, identity, memory, and the desire to be seen without unraveling.
Structured in five thematic chapters, this collection doesn't follow a straight path toward healing. Instead, it wanders through darkness and fear, through quiet mornings and silent breakdowns, through moments of light that appear almost by accident. It is a map of coming undone and learning to live with the pieces.
These are poems for the quiet fighters. For the ones who know what it means to smile despite it all. For the ones who have stumbled, faltered, disappeared and kept breathing anyway. The words of A. L. K. are both delicate and unflinching. Her poems carry the reader through vulnerability, survival, and the flickering, stubborn flame of hope.
“Sometimes / I think: / ‘This is going to kill me.’ / And then I try my very best / to prove myself wrong.”
The Art of Falling Apart is not a story of defeat. It is a love letter to persistence. To the ones who fall apart and still choose to begin over and over again.
138 pages, Paperback
Published August 31, 2025
1 person is currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
A.L.K.
2 books2 followersA. L. K. is a master’s student in General and Comparative Literature and loves getting lost in stories that bring us closer to life in all its shades and textures.
Outside of writing, A. L. K. enjoys creative projects like journaling, bead embroidery, and sharing her work on social media. At home in Berlin, she loves strolling through parks, browsing small bookshops, and soaking up the cozy atmosphere of a good café. For her, every story whether found in a book or in everyday life is a chance to understand the world a little better.
//
A. L. K. studiert im Master Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft und liebt es, in Geschichten einzutauchen, die uns das Leben in all seinen Facetten näher bringen.
Neben dem Schreiben widmet sich A. L. K. kreativen Projekten wie unter anderem Journaling, Perlenstickerei und dem Bloggen auf ihren Social Media Kanälen. Zuhause, in Berlin, genießt sie Spaziergänge durch Parks, das Stöbern in kleinen Buchläden und Eintauchen in die warme Atmosphäre eines guten Cafés. Für sie ist jede Geschichte – ob in Büchern oder im Alltag – eine Gelegenheit, die Welt ein bisschen besser zu verstehen.
Instagram & TikTok: @ofcoffeeandkindness
Outside of writing, A. L. K. enjoys creative projects like journaling, bead embroidery, and sharing her work on social media. At home in Berlin, she loves strolling through parks, browsing small bookshops, and soaking up the cozy atmosphere of a good café. For her, every story whether found in a book or in everyday life is a chance to understand the world a little better.
//
A. L. K. studiert im Master Allgemeine und Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft und liebt es, in Geschichten einzutauchen, die uns das Leben in all seinen Facetten näher bringen.
Neben dem Schreiben widmet sich A. L. K. kreativen Projekten wie unter anderem Journaling, Perlenstickerei und dem Bloggen auf ihren Social Media Kanälen. Zuhause, in Berlin, genießt sie Spaziergänge durch Parks, das Stöbern in kleinen Buchläden und Eintauchen in die warme Atmosphäre eines guten Cafés. Für sie ist jede Geschichte – ob in Büchern oder im Alltag – eine Gelegenheit, die Welt ein bisschen besser zu verstehen.
Instagram & TikTok: @ofcoffeeandkindness
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 3, 2025
*i was lucky and received an arc of this <3
i haven’t read a book in month and nothing has captured my attention but today i came home to this book waiting at the door and right away i laid down on my bed and finished this one on one sitting. as someone who also has processed a lot of my own emotions through poetry, i could see a lot of my own experiences in these words. this book was honest and raw and vulnerable and beautiful. it painted a picture of the ups and downs of life and managed to highlight the beauty and light of this world even in the darkest moments. i’m so proud of anna for publishing this collection of poems and will forever cherish it. and if i dodn’t cry before, i did cry while reading the acknowledgements.
i haven’t read a book in month and nothing has captured my attention but today i came home to this book waiting at the door and right away i laid down on my bed and finished this one on one sitting. as someone who also has processed a lot of my own emotions through poetry, i could see a lot of my own experiences in these words. this book was honest and raw and vulnerable and beautiful. it painted a picture of the ups and downs of life and managed to highlight the beauty and light of this world even in the darkest moments. i’m so proud of anna for publishing this collection of poems and will forever cherish it. and if i dodn’t cry before, i did cry while reading the acknowledgements.
September 25, 2025
It’s truly such an intimate experience to read something that feels so raw and to know in some way, a piece of the author’s heart and the way that it resonates with your own. I took my time reading this because each poem felt it deserved to hold the full weight of its words and I felt I would be doing them a disservice to read any faster.
August 31, 2025
I was blessed to receive an ARC for this book, and spent a couple of evenings in bed reading my way through the poems. This is one of the most beautiful poetry books I’ve read to date, capturing the imperfection of healing, the non linear way that life goes, but the beauty of the human resilience as well. I started this book at the acknowledgements, which I suppose is unusual but they had me crying around sentence two. This writing, and the entire collection as a whole is incredibly powerful and impactful. It touched my heart, and spoke to my own lived experiences around mental health and recovery. Would recommend to anyone, whether you can identify or not, and absolutely loved every second of reading this, even when it touched on the heavier topics.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews