The Breakup: A Novel

by Kurt Andersen, Natalie Naudus (Cast), Saskia Maarleveld (Cast)

Read by a Full Cast
Length = 20 Hours & 5 Minutes

A marriage cracks apart as a near-future United States redraws its borders in this penetrating and moving novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Fantasyland.

“This remarkable book contains multitudes. With wide-ranging intelligence and his trademark wit, Kurt Andersen has written an epic elegy for a country strained past its breaking point.” —Tom Perrotta, author of Ghost Town

Natalie and Asher’s marriage has long been marked by fault lines, quiet rifts in how they view their fellow Americans and navigate AI-suffused life in 2045. After twenty-three years together, and after surviving the two years of civil war in the 2030s, Natalie in rural Tennessee (part of the new Free American Republic) and Asher in San Francisco (in the now smaller United States). Natalie and Asher’s relationship mirrors America’s own unraveling—confused, messy, painful, ambivalent, and impossibly intimate.

When Natalie and Asher are brought back into proximity while touring far-flung colleges with their seventeen-year-old, they find themselves on a road trip through a strange, uncertain new American landscape, transformed by both the terrorist uprising and technology, all while dealing with the flux—and resilience—within their own family. They face the questions the nation has reckoned with for a generation: what differences are irreconcilable, and when is something broken worth saving?

Razor-sharp, ambitious, ranging from tragic to comic and brimming with imagination, The Breakup is a sweeping story where the personal and sociopolitical intersect in ways bracingly plausible, keenly insightful, and surprisingly hopeful.

Cover art 2026 Wayne Thiebaud Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
ISBN: #9798217405145

Genres: Fiction, Politics, Dystopia, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction, Historical Fiction

Audible Audio

First published August 18, 2026

About the author

Kurt Andersen is the author of the novels Turn of the Century, Heyday, and True Believers, and and, with Alec Baldwin of You Can't Spell America Without Me. His non-fiction books include Fantasyland, Reset and The Real Thing.

He is also host of the Peabody Award-winning weekly public radio program Studio 360,.

Previously, Kurt was a co-founder and editor-in-chief of the satirical magazine Spy, editor-in-chief of New York magazine, a columnist for New York, staff writer at The New Yorker, and design and architecture critic for Time.

Reviews

[Bam cooks the books]

'It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine' (R.E.M.)

The breakup #1: It's 2045 and the United States of America has been through another civil war, this time over politics, and has now entered a period of an agreed-upon 'disunion' where states/areas can vote to remain with the original country with its Democrat-controlled government, or leave and join a newly formed country: the Free American Republic. But it's not as simple as that--state lines are being redrawn and renamed. Most large metropolitan areas are staying put while most rural areas are leaving the union. Majority rules.

The breakup #2: The two main characters of the story, Natalie and Asher Zimbalist, are facing the breakup of their marriage. Natalie has returned to their home in rural Tennessee to finish her book of poems while Ash has remained with their teenaged daughter, Logan, in San Francisco, where he is the director of the Jäger Interspecies Communication and Cognition Institute, whose proposed expanded mission involves humans, animals and machines.

The Zimbalists are an example of opposites attracting. For the first half of the book, the chapters alternate between these two characters' pov so we learn their family background, their feelings, their opinions. One of the biggest things the Zimbalists disagree on is the use of AI which is quite prevalent in this near-future world. It is one particular use of such devices that is the last straw for Natalie.

Also interspersed are news articles from the war seven years earlier so that background is filled in. There are occasional chapters from an entity named Yumi who claims to be a friend of the Zimbalists and knows them quite well. And there are reports from the Jäger Institute of memories recorded from an ancient tortoise (which are quite interesting.)

My favorite part of the book is the second half where the family takes a weeklong road trip over spring break to tour colleges that Logan is interested in attending. Here they experience the divided country firsthand and have several interesting, and sometimes frightening, experiences. The trip is also an opportunity to see whether their marriage can be salvaged.

My feelings about this book, this reading experience, are all over the chart, from 3 to 5 stars, but I've settled on an average of 4. Parts are very riveting and exciting but other parts are dead boring. The book seems overly long and often gets deep into the weeds with politics, science, AI, etc. It is obvious which side of the current political divide this author is on which I'm sure will turn off many of his readers who are on the other side. I should mention that the author has written two non-fiction books on these topics so this novel could be considered a completion of a trilogy of sorts. Those books are: Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History and Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America.

I disliked his use of factual footnotes in the story which tends to destroy the momentum. Often by the time I reached those notes, I had forgotten to what they were referring so I began bookmarking the pages with asterisks so I could go back to refresh my memory. Eventually I decided it wasn't worth the effort.

In general, I liked these characters and their extended family. The ending was quite exciting and satisfying and I found some developments (cracks?) in the newly-formed Republic to be pretty amusing. Unintended consequences.

Note: I was offered an arc of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley which I decided to accept after the publication date.

[Shirley]

Challenge is a one word synopsis. Challenge to read, Challenge in a marriage, Challenge for our country torn apart, Challenge to accept a world domination by artificial intelligence. Set in 2045 raises question of an updated 1984.

I found it overly long at 600 pages, overly technical in the intelligence sciences,
Just overly.

[Emily Mayo]

I always think I’ll enjoy books like these more than I do but speculative alt-history / bureaucracy kind of all blurs together after a while…only so much about nonexistent histories of war that you can digest

[Jendimmick]

I did not finish this book, though I am still grateful to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for this honest review. I made it 20% of the way through and then acknowledged that I am not the reader for this book. I read a NYT book review article about new books set in a near future in which the United States had broken apart -- Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel, and this book by Kurt Anderson. I loved Exit Party (which I also reviewed on goodreads), but could not get through The Breakup. The basic premise of the parallel breakup of a 23-year marriage with that of the country, and how both sides comes to terms with their new reality, is an intriguing one. Set in 2045 with many flashbacks to the start of the civil war in the mid-2030s, the author cleverly inserts cameos of current day politicians, tech moguls, celebrities and their offspring, referencing them in historical news articles documenting the facts of the "breakup" which are interspersed throughout the novel. Unfortunately I found this, and other conceits, too clever by half. The characters' obsession with red/blue tribal politics quickly became farcical -- like poor actors trying too hard. I was turned off by the obsessively detailed world-building with too much in-the-weeds science and bureaucracy. I really wanted to just skip to the part where the parents come together to bring their youngest on a college tour road trip together, but when I discovered the book is nearly 600 pages, I knew I didn't have the fortitude to stick with it. The future Kurt Anderson portrays, still dominated by deep division and reshaped by omnipresent AI in drones, robots, biometrics and implants, is not one I wanted to spend any more time in, but I suppose it serves as a cautionary tale.

[Marty Mangold]

I read in an interview that the author considered writing a non-fiction book and settled on a novel. So it was interesting to consider what his non-fiction book might have been.

One main takeoff point is "The compulsive politicization of everything - the fear and hatred of the other side as an animating, irresistible everyday emotion." - this struck me as the author's focus. He continued this beautifully at one pont (chapter 3), with

* "Obsevessive political thinking is like a tick that went horribly viral, a kind of social-political Tourette's syndrome ... this politics illness became a chronic condition."

* "... maybe that's too metaphorical, but it is a terrible habit, and breaking any bad habit is hard: like over-eating, which Americans took up after giving up cigarettes, and before social media...."

* "Ashe called the two of them codependent rage addicts"

and later,

* "I really no longer want to be forced to see everything as a political thing, and everyone as a political actor."

This idea — of political strife as an addiction, and a hard habit to break, and a chronic condition made worse by electronics and AI — this is well treatread.

The phrase "all clichés are true" comes up so often, it must be significant. However, I did not find this book to be a cliche or predictable. I did find some long stretches of stream-of-consciousness diary entries by the protagonists to be boring, and about 40% into the audio intended to drop it and leave it unread. I subsequently finished it, and am none the worse for it.

Obviously, this book is a speculation about how the future might play out over the next few decades. Say what you want about the likelihood of this particular outcome, it does make me feel as naïve as the character Natalie when she reflected, “I didn’t think politics would keep mattering to so much to so many people in the long run. I thought America would grow out of it.”

Whether we grow out of our current situation, or split in two (or more) sub-countries, or something else, all remains to be seen. The author is an insightful observer of the condition, and I’m glad to read the book.

[Candace Siegle, Greedy Reader 2.0]

I was torn about this book. Parts of it are so interesting--Kurt Andersen's scene setting is thoughtful and deep, especially in the opening chapters when he sets up the Zimbalist's marriage challenges, builds the new world after the split of the United States, and sets up the college tour of Asher, Natalie, and their daughter Logan. This goes on so long that I wanted to yell, "just get in the car already!" They finally do, and the novel takes off, so to speak.

I can see The Breakup as a terrific limited TV series, which would whittle it down and focus the story. Andersen is such a good writer that there are many quality scenes and concepts but it just goes on too long.

I'm going with three stars because of the quality of Andersen's writing and the possibilities of the story he tells. I do thank NetGalley and the publisher for access to this title in exchange for an honest review.

[Thomas]

I'm not sure how smoking cannabis in a hotel room (which you can't even do in most hotels today with the sensors they have) or no cell service (look up ASTS) made it through the author's research, let alone all the eyes that must have read it before publication. Also, climate change will feel much more present in the 2040s. The world-building falls flat due to missed details like this.

The characters are also very hard to like. Asher is a fawning simp. Natalie is a narcissist of the highest order. I was pretty glad to be done with them by the end, feeling happy for the AI that was able to head off into oblivion without ever having to deal with their bullshit again.

[Stacy DeBroff]

An immersive, compelling fictionalization of America splitting apart beginning in 2036 based on a new civil war between former MAGA supporters turned all-out terrorists wanting a disunion from the perceived Tyranny of the majority. It begins with random killings of civilians, military and government targets by individual militia groups lacking a centralized leadership, though Tucker Carlson seems most positioned to lead them.

The fighting mostly comes down to rural versus city, white versus ethnic tolerance, Southerners versus Northerners, the educated versus the uneducated. Anderson dedicates vast amounts of pages to how this would actually play out logistically. Would America split into two or into multiple countries, how each American would have a choice to stay or go to a new country, how would a military defense of the country work, what happens to the jailed terrorists, how would a new government form, and so on in elaborate detail and postulation. The whole scenario seems plausible given the current seemingly irreparable hatred between the two political factions in the United States.

But the true gravitas of the novel lies in a broken relationship between a husband and wife over political issues. Ash Zimbalist, a politically active and esteemed academic dean, takes a job based in Silicon Valley with a biotech billionaire who’s looking to forge independence of his neurotech company from U.S. control and funding. His Cuban-immigrant, poet and writer wife Natalie can’t stand the self-congratulatory tech bubble of San Fransico and her husband’s obsession with politics, and retreats to their idyllic nature-infused, rural Tennessee home taking a break both from politics and her husband’s political obsession. Their marital break-up parallels all the complexity of America being divided, and the novel’s most poignant moments center on whether Natalie and Ash can reconcile their person differences and in essence forge a new marital country.

All this comes to a head as Natalie, Ash and their daughter Logan go on a extended college road trip together. This is where the most compelling writing and heart of the novel kicks into gear and you become most emotionally engaged.

Thanks to Random House and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

[Andy Krahling]

2.5 stars, rounded up to 3 stars.

I have real mixed feelings about this one. Essentially the story has three distinct and major parts: 1. A troubled marriage between a couple with "slightly" different political beliefs; 2. The aftermath of a US civil war, which divides the nation into 2 major parts, with cities operating as independent entities; 3. The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into almost every aspect of life.

From my perspective, 2 of the 3 themes were successfully explored: the troubled marriage and the AI infusion. The part about the US civil war was, well, in my eyes, hopelessly political and one-sided, and pretty much an excuse for the author to display his hatred and contempt for half of America. The less I say about this aspect of the book, the better, and I made every effort not to let my distaste for the author's obvious and unhidden bias against the right (who were all fascists and racists, BTW) sour my view on the other parts of the book. This was easier said than done.

The examination of the marriage was interesting, and I feel, worthy itself of the book. The so-called "conservative" one was not in any way a conservative -- she had slightly less nutty views about some social issues.

The author's imaginative views about AI in the near future was fascinating to me, and was easily the most successful aspect of the book.

At over 500 pages, this took an effort and a commitment to read, and clearly took an effort to write.

It will clearly find an audience, and I could see a Netflix series in its future. I hated the political hack job here, but I did appreciate other aspects of the story.

Will I read more from the author? I really don't know.

I received a complimentary e-copy of the book from the publisher and NetGalley, and my review is being left freely.

[Emi Yoshida]

Tricky take on the future of America, no longer United. As of June 6, 2036 the country is ruptured by warring factions; and in 2045 as The Breakup begins, it refers as much to the state of the nation as to that of the Zimbalists. Natalie Zimbalist from Tennessee and her husband Asher Zimbalist from San Francisco, are from different socio-economic backgrounds, differing degrees of political involvement/aversion; and after 23 years of marriage their children Andy and Logan may be all that keeps them together. Chapters are narrated alternately by Natalie, Asher, their mutual acquaintance Yumi, and "historical" news dispatches.

I really like the Zimbalist story, and the political upheaval story too, but there was altogether too much else going on in this book to keep track of, for me personally. I found the footnotes alone to be staggering, let alone all the anagrams. I'm already overwhelmed by present day current events, and The Breakup's politics of Disunion were ever so way much more complex. Essentially in this version of the future, the (democratic) United States of America and the (republican) Free American Republic exist independent of each other, but animosity and violence between the two sides continues. Another thing I really grappled with was the family's ongoing remarking upon synchronicity where they often find it - uncanny coincidences involving historical and modern day significance, family or otherwise personal ties, and day to day minutiae.

I did love the comical name dropping throughout the book, Bad Bunny as actor, Elon Musk's future exes, Vice President Elissa Slotkin, Governor Travis Kelce, President AOC, Fox anchor Arabella Kushner, etc and I found 2045 as author Kurt Andersen imagines it to be fascinating but depressing. My most favorite things by far were the talking tortoise, and the escalator death!

[Michael Godwin]

The Breakup is an ambitious near-future novel that uses the collapse of a marriage to explore the fractures running through an increasingly divided America. Set in 2045, the story places Natalie and Asher on opposite sides of a dramatically redrawn United States after years of political upheaval and civil conflict. Their twenty three year marriage becomes a deeply personal reflection of a country struggling to determine what can still hold it together.

The road-trip structure gives the novel an especially interesting way to examine this fractured landscape. As Natalie and Asher travel together while visiting colleges with their seventeen year old, they encounter an America transformed by technological change, political violence, and the consequences of division. Their own unresolved differences become impossible to separate from the larger questions surrounding the country, particularly as they confront which disagreements can be overcome and which may be impossible to reconcile.

Readers who enjoy dystopian fiction, political fiction, speculative novels, social commentary, family dramas, and stories that connect intimate relationships with larger cultural questions should find The Breakup particularly thought provoking. Its combination of near future world building, marriage and family dynamics, political tension, and darkly imaginative possibilities gives the novel a distinctive appeal. At its heart, the story asks a surprisingly human question: when something is deeply damaged, is it possible and worthwhile to save it?

[Patricia]

A friend recommended this book after hearing about it, so when I started reading and called to ask her some questions, she laughed and said: "I haven't read it!" Aargh! I kept reading, but I would have liked someone to talk about all this along the way.

Because it is set in the near future and is heavy with details during the frenetic intervening years, the twenty years of information feel heavy. It starts hitting fast and furious from the first chapter. We meet Ash, we meet Natalie, and they are using words whose meaning may have shifted in the twenty years; we are informed of chaotic events that have happened, and at the beginning, it is overwhelming just trying to keep track of everything.

I don't know if it is a short book or a long book; there was so much information to absorb that it felt very long. By the end, we have a good idea of what our future history might look like, and, for me, it is grievous.

The Breakup refers to two separate breakups at the same time: the dissociation of our nation and the related marital problems between Nat and Ash.

What I like about this book is that there is a lot of unpacking going on about AI, about social differences in our nation, about literature, about the academic world, about the world of intelligence and the relationships between all of the above. It gives you a lot to ponder.

What I do not like about the book is that the main characters do a lot of reparte', a lot of bickering, and a whole lot of talking. I prefer more restful relationships. There is SO much talking!

[kevin kvalvik]

I am absolutely crazy about Kurt Andersen. He is 72 and somehow more relevant than most writers half his age. Fantasyland (2017), his history of how America talked itself into unreality, is one of my favorite books for explaining how the country got here.

This one is a novel, and the conceit is a good one: a long marriage going south becomes the metaphor for a two-party marriage going south. Natalie and Asher are twenty-three years in, living apart in 2045 after a short, ugly civil war has split the country — she in the new Free American Republic, he in what is left of the United States. Andersen is smart about not making them enemies. Their views are close, slightly off, and the small differences shadow what happened to the country. He uses an omniscient narrator that shifts through different characters' perspectives, which is clever, and he shows the hypocrisy on the far left and far right without putting either character in those camps.

If I have a complaint, it is that he undersells it. Strong statements are expected and I would argue required, and he pulls his punches. The two characters do not carry the actual asymmetry of the moment: one side of the country has abandoned democracy outright, while the other has hitched its wagon to democracy and does not know how to defend it. That imbalance is not reflected in his analogy, and it is the book's real gap.

Not his best work, and the compromises show his hand, but challenging and thought-provoking and definitely worth the read.

[Lauren]

RATING: 2.5
As a fan of dystopian fiction I was really intrigued by the premise of the breakup.

The story is about Natalie and Asher’s marriage. Set in an America that is woefully divided both ideologically and physically in the year 2045. The country has separated into two distinct parts, with cities operating as independent entities. And Artificial Intelligence is suffused into almost every aspect of life.
Natalie and Asher come back together as they tour colleges with their seventeen-year-old child, using the road trip to move through a country altered by violence, secession, and technology. But ultimately it’s a story about they each experience their own reality, clinging to narratives that comfort them. As they travel through the country they each encounter things that should complicate what they believe, and yet, they find ways to make those things fit the story they already carry.

With all that said I think the idea was great and there was a lot of good elements in this book. Anderson’s exploration of AI in a near future being one of the highlights. But it was incredibly drawn out and overwritten which made for a really hard read. I found the characters unlikable, shallow, and underdeveloped which was incredibly frustrating in a book that's 576 pages. Ultimately the long drawn-out narrative had little payoff.

Thank you to NetGalley & Random House for the ARC

[Eliza's Reading]

The concept of this story drew me in quickly. The year is 2045, two years since the second Civil War in America and now the states are deciding to stay or leave the union and all around is AI and the tech world that has taken over daily life. Now add in a messy relationship between Natalie and Asher dealing with feelings of being on almost opposite sides of the American disunion argument. The chapters are broken into different POVs in chronological order by dates which came across interesting at first but then became kind of mundane and repetitive which resulted in being bored. I was ready even up to the end of the novel for something to happen to hold my attention and give me reason to keep going. Kurt Andersen’s writing and storytelling was accessible and organized well. I loved reading the publication pieces by Natalie and the confidential records that were included throughout the novel to give a sense of what was happening leading up to and including 2045. It was just that the story didn’t seem to go anywhere in my opinion except on watching the introspective realization of what each figure out what side of things they belonged. It was an interesting read but one that maybe could have achieved so much more with the storyline.

Thank you, Kurt Andersen and Random House for providing this e-ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

[Dean McIntyre]

THE BREAKUP: A NOVEL by Kurt Andersen -- The title relates to two of the three main themes of the book: 1) The ongoing breakup of the marriage between the two main characters, Natalie and Asher, in 2045; and 2) a civil war in the USA that took place in the 2030s, resulting in a divided nation along political lines, with rural areas being conservative, racist, and right wing in the new Free American Republic and most cities remaining more liberal and progressive, now part of a much smaller United States. The progressive dissolution of the marriage mirrors the political dissolution of the nation: Natalie moves to rural Tennessee in the Free American Republic to finish her book and Asher remains in San Francisco with their teenaged daughter, Logan, and where he directs a large communications and AI institute. Natalie and Asher come together to take Logan on a trip through both countries to investigate possible colleges to attend. The third main theme is around AI and its prominence in the politically divided postwar nations. The book unpacks numerous themes: family troubles and relationships, political and social tensions in the nation, literature, academics, artificial intelligence, and more. At nearly 600 pages, it's a big book with lots of words and discussions, but all worth considering.

[Lyn C.]

4.25 rated up to 5

If you regard Kurt Andersen's sprawling non-fiction works as important in this moment; you'll appreciate The Breakup. The rating system for Goodreads isn't doing this book justice because people are offended that it's not "balanced." He literally wrote "Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America: A Recent History" (currently rated 4.2 on Goodreads) and Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History (currently rated 4.09 on Goodreads) Yet readers expected balance?

Its near-future predictions have that specific, creeping sense of doomed reality that makes you want to keep reading while also wishing you could look away. One of the book’s strengths is how well Andersen maintains the historical and cultural timeline across such a huge scope.

Another strength is timeline continuity, with only a few errors of narrating our current Gen Z as middle aged professionals and parents, as written by a hyperaware Generation Jones Boomer. If that sentence exhausted you, buckle up for The Breakup.

Usually, I read a book and immediately know who in my life needs to read it. The Breakup did not give me that. Not because it’s bad, or because it doesn’t deserve readers, quite the opposite. I just can’t think of anyone in my actual circle who would willingly get on this particular ride with me.

[Joe]

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley.

My feeling as I read the majority of this book and as I finished can be summed up with a shrug. It was ok. I think there were some really good ideas in here, and some really wonderful writing (I highlighted multiple sentences and paragraphs), but the end product feels a little sterile, like watching a Netflix show that was made quickly to "meet the times". The characters felt thin, which is odd because you spend so much time with them, particularly as a majority of the book is journal entries from them. Everyone in the book felt like a representation of something or someone, rather than a person who lived a life and was dealing with the aftermath of a second Civil War. The parts about AI were fine, the parts about the Civil War were more interesting than anything, as Andersen had to take a guess at what the next 20 years will look like. I don't know that I would recommend this to my friends, but if I saw them reading it, I wouldn't stop them, I'd just ask them about it when they were done.

[Mike]

The Breakup is a book that absolutely could not figure out what it wanted to be.

We’re in a future where AI is everywhere, basically infinitely capable, and apparently has enough free time to translate the thoughts of 125-year-old turtles. The United States has fractured into smaller countries. AOC and Tucker Carlson are heads of state. Somewhere in the middle of all this, a couple is slowly breaking up.

And somehow none of those things are as interesting as they sound.

There are political ideas, AI satire, relationship drama, speculative futurism, and assorted weirdness all fighting for control of the same book. Instead of coming together into something clever, it mostly feels like Andersen kept adding ingredients and forgot he was supposed to eventually make a meal.
I almost gave up on this one early, which says a lot considering how stubborn I am about finishing books. I kept waiting for all the pieces to click into place. They never did.

One star for the 125-year-old turtle. She deserved a better book.

[c.]

i have mixed feelings about this novel. i found myself wildly oscillating between enjoying tidbits of this novel, to finding the characters teetering a paradoxical line of annoying and dull. i thoroughly enjoyed the language andersen uses (i kept a log of words and phrases that i liked), and—unlike some readers—found myself more drawn towards the speculative aspects of this novel than the interpersonal dynamics. i even liked the footnotes! sue me!

that being said, i really, really could not get into asher or natalie, both as characters and as a couple. the penultimate roadtrip that asher and natalie take did nothing to endear me to their relationship, and i was still left puzzled on how they even got married in the first place. perhaps i'm cynical, but i really do not see how their relationship could continue without their resentment towards each other bubbling back up towards the surface. kindness and honesty can only shield one from so much when it feels as though you are swallowing pieces of yourself to be a part of a whole.

[Erika]

The Breakup by Kurt Andersen is hands down the best book I have read this year. I had to pace myself because the book felt so real, and I often caught myself thinking I was in the future. I have no idea how Andersen pulled this off.

It took me so long to write this review because I was in such a state of awe over this book that I could not say a word about it. No review can do this book justice.

Everything felt so real: the setting, the characters, and the story were woven so perfectly. The summary says it all: a couple goes through a separation as America breaks up with itself. I was able to visualize the two Americas so clearly, and the constant name-dropping of political figures from our present and recent history made this book anxiety-inducing for me, but in a good way.

I felt for the characters and I felt for the country. We all went on this journey together, and the ending was perfect. It left me with a sense of "everything is going to be all right" and made me believe that whatever happens, we will be okay in the end.

[Michael]

The Breakup by Kurt Andersen is a novel looking at a not too far in the distant future America and it's bleak. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish the book. A couple of factors drove that decision - one, I am a voracious reader of non=fiction, especially history and current events. So the way "The Breakup" is playing out, it hits very close to home as we self-destruct in the US today. Secondly, I found it very difficult to connect with the characters. Andersen is a very good write, don't get me wrong. It was simply hard to connect or empathize with the main characters. And maybe that was the point? Ultimately, this wasn't for me and I opted out of finishing it. This book will appeal to many people of that I'm sure, it just wasn't for me. Thank you to #netgalley and #randomhouse for the opportunity to preview this book.

[Karen]

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher Random House for this one-star eARC.
In a future where the United States has split after a civil war, Natalie and Asher are a long-married couple living in very different parts of the country and holding very different beliefs. They've come back together to take their teenager on college visits, and end up on a road trip through a changed and uneasy version of America. As they travel, they are forced to deal with both the divided country around them and the unresolved issues in their marriage.
Despite the strong idea behind the story, the book didn’t work well for me. The writing felt choppy and hard to follow, which made it difficult to stay interested. I also found the main characters dull and hard to connect with, so it was tough to care about what happened to them. Overall, it was a struggle to finish, and I wouldn’t recommend it.

[Brian Regan]

An interesting read for interesting times. The basic premise is that our current fragmenting and polarization reaches a fever pitch in the mid 2030s, leading to a brief and largely bloodless Civil War. The subsequent "Disunion" of the USA unfolds over the next ten years. The story is told by the members of a family who are themselves undergoing a disunion. I found the vision of how the USA would self-divide fascinating, with state borders shifting, and islands of blue in red states banding together or existing as West Berlin-like islands. The projection of our current politics (lots of familiar names in government still) was also fun. The role of AI in everyday life also seemed like a reasonable progression. Things change, but also things are much the same. I liked the premise more than the characters and their stories, but it was a good listen. Audiobook with multiple readers.

[Jock Mcclees]

The book was rather slow in many places. It was set in the future about a Civil War in the US which was a little bit bloody but both sides seemed to be happy to just get rid of each other. It also goes into marriage problems between the main characters. And it goes into AI and how it is used in the future. It was too long and kind of dragged. It was an interesting premise and some of the issues I hadn't thought about. Other parts didn't seem very believable. (Not relative to the AI but some of the details of the split of the US.) I did get a kick out of an earthquake happening at the end on the New Madrid fault near St. Louis. Most people don't know that the strongest earthquake in US history occurred there in the 1800s, so I like that detail. It also brought up the issue of disaster response from each of the two countries formed from the US.

[Casey]

This novel projects the future breakup of the United States in the not too distant future based off of current events. Running parallel to this is the breakup of a couple. I found the author’s writing style disjointed making it a difficult read. add to that that the main characters were uninteresting for the most part and it added to the struggle to finish the book.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Goodreads, Net Galley, Amazon, and my fiction book review blog.

[Pam]

The subject matter of this novel is intriguing -- political discord, re-drawn borders, AI going crazy, a struggling marriage. There is a lot to take in, and as the story is set in 2045, the novel portrays a future that, frankly, isn't very appealing. I liked some aspects of the plot, but the book was very long-winded, and I kept waiting for resolutions instead of being led on and on. Maybe with some editing, I would have enjoyed it better.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and Random House for the eARC and the opportunity to read this novel. All opinions are my own.

[Perry]

I have enjoyed all of Andersen's books that I have read. His last two non-fiction books (Fantasyland and Evil Geniuses) feed into this post-breakup United States speculative fiction. It is chock full of ideas, but it didn't always balance story with setting well. Still, I enjoyed reading two chapters each morning. Both Natalie and Ash are indelible characters (who I rooted for despite their differences) and there are captivating plot moments. I have now read three US breakup stories (The Biography of X and Exit Party) and may write more about them in regards to each other.

[Deborah]

This book takes work, but it’s worth it. If you come across a name of a group, an event or unexplained date, don’t pass over it, look it up. Those were our missed opportunities to have seen what was coming, the threats to Democracy we are now experiencing. However, it is also insightful on how and why we are at this point, providing us differing viewpoints told from a couple in the stages of pre-divorce.
Creatively constructed.
If you expect a “fun” novel, this isn’t it. At 600 pages, it is a time commitment but time well spent.

[Jessica]

The Breakup has a great concept, but the reading experience was a chore. A near‑future, post–civil war America with AI everywhere and a marriage falling apart in the middle of it should be sharp and emotionally layered. Instead, the whole thing feels oddly boring and one‑sided. For a book that’s supposed to be evocative it only evoked boredom.
My biggest issue is the sheer length. The page count is wildly disproportionate to the payoff. The plot meanders, the commentary drones on, and there’s never enough momentum to justify that word count. I kept waiting for the big emotional or political gut punch that would make all those pages feel necessary, and it just never came. Interesting premise, but it’s not worth the time.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!