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Map of a Heart: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Finding the Way Home
Not yet published
Expected 17 Feb 26“Gracefully dances backwards... Gorelick’s love, wit and wisdom ripple through time, page after page.” Heather Harpham, author of the Reese Witherspoon book club memoir, Happiness: The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After
Jacque Gorelick was just three when her parents divorced, six when her dad remarried, and eight when her mother’s sudden death and her father’s volatility sent her already crumbling family into even more upheaval. Her father takes her younger brother to Alaska, leaving her with her ex-stepmother to sift through the emotional wreckage. Neither orphan nor adoptee, Jacque struggles to heal and find belonging after years of chaos and loss.
In her twenties, she meets the love of her life, marries him, and has a baby, finally finding long-sought stability. Then, just months after their son is born, Jacque’s husband collapses on an afternoon jog and ends up on life support. For a harrowing ten days in an ICU waiting room, she must advocate for her husband's life while caring for their newborn, navigating tenuous family dynamics, and confronting the ghosts of her past.
Map of a Heart is a deeply personal look at what it means to build a life when the foundation was fractured from the start. For anyone who has ever asked What makes a family?, this book offers an answer rooted in resilience, hope, and hard-won love.
Jacque Gorelick was just three when her parents divorced, six when her dad remarried, and eight when her mother’s sudden death and her father’s volatility sent her already crumbling family into even more upheaval. Her father takes her younger brother to Alaska, leaving her with her ex-stepmother to sift through the emotional wreckage. Neither orphan nor adoptee, Jacque struggles to heal and find belonging after years of chaos and loss.
In her twenties, she meets the love of her life, marries him, and has a baby, finally finding long-sought stability. Then, just months after their son is born, Jacque’s husband collapses on an afternoon jog and ends up on life support. For a harrowing ten days in an ICU waiting room, she must advocate for her husband's life while caring for their newborn, navigating tenuous family dynamics, and confronting the ghosts of her past.
Map of a Heart is a deeply personal look at what it means to build a life when the foundation was fractured from the start. For anyone who has ever asked What makes a family?, this book offers an answer rooted in resilience, hope, and hard-won love.
292 pages, Paperback
Expected publication February 17, 2026
About the author
Jacque Gorelick
1 bookJacque’s essays about family, motherhood, estrangement, education, and health have appeared or are forthcoming in The New York Times, Salon, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Kenyon Review, Pithead Chapel, X-R-A-Y, Healthy Women, The Washington Post, HuffPost and more.
After spending her fractured childhood in search of home and belonging, Jacque spent her adult life working with children and families. She has a degree in psychology and a graduate degree in education with an emphasis in early childhood development. She has always been fascinated with how family shapes and defines us, and how we ultimately choose to define it for ourselves.
A California native, Jacque has lived all over the West Coast from Santa Barbara to Alaska. Now firmly rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area, she lives beside a creek under redwood trees with her husband, two boys, and a mélange of rescues. To find out more about Jacque and her work visit her website at www.jacquegorelick.com.
After spending her fractured childhood in search of home and belonging, Jacque spent her adult life working with children and families. She has a degree in psychology and a graduate degree in education with an emphasis in early childhood development. She has always been fascinated with how family shapes and defines us, and how we ultimately choose to define it for ourselves.
A California native, Jacque has lived all over the West Coast from Santa Barbara to Alaska. Now firmly rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area, she lives beside a creek under redwood trees with her husband, two boys, and a mélange of rescues. To find out more about Jacque and her work visit her website at www.jacquegorelick.com.
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November 3, 2025
Map of a Heart is a riveting and vivid story of a new mom who suddenly finds herself in an impossible situation. It is an engrossing testament to the marvels of modern medicine and also the power of community to get us through the most terrifying emergencies. In these pages, Jacque Gorelick reminds us that life is precarious…but with a little luck and a lot of love, we, like her, just might be able to find our way.
Displaying 1 of 1 review