Broken Chocolate

by Rachel Miranda

★★★★★ “In Rachel Miranda's brilliant and beautiful debut novel, family love is the strongest power in the universe. Broken Chocolate is both a suspenseful medical drama and a marvel of empathy and insight.” Brian Morton, author of A Son's Memoir, winner of the Pushcart Prize and Guggenheim Fellowship

The Sandor family has always been close, gathering around the table for birthday breakfasts and Friday night dinners, drawn in by pastry chef Liv's inventive cooking and Sam's cautionary tales of his patients in the Yale Brain Injury department—reminders of how suddenly life can change. But when fifteen-year-old Zoey—popular, ambitious, and the bright center of the family—falls into a coma after a freak accident, their world fractures.

Her twin brother, Zev, must confront life without her protective shadow. Wrestling with social anxiety, he turns to his art to make sense of their abrupt separation, even as he privately navigates a budding romance with Zoey’s best friend. Sam faces an agonizing conflict of interest and a crisis of faith, haunted by the childhood losses that led him to medicine. And Liv, shaken from her steady calm, fights to hold her family together with apricot tarts, stubborn hope, and whatever strength she can gather.

Inspired by the patients, doctors, and caregivers the author encountered while managing a brain trauma clinic, Broken Chocolate moves us to consider what defines a meaningful life, when to honor old dreams, and when it’s time to build new ones.

Genres: Jewish, Literature

372 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 31, 2026

About the author

Rachel Miranda emigrated from Switzerland to America at the age of eight and now lives in the greater New York area. She is the author of "The World at Our Table: A Euro-American Cookbook of Family Favorites," and writes a Substack series called "Air Hunger." Her poetry and prose are published in literary journals in the US and abroad. She is a freelance editor specializing in translated literature and scholarly works, and managing editor of Plamen Press. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and Literature from Bennington Writing Seminars and continues to savor every chance to play with the English language. "Broken Chocolate" is her debut novel.

Reviews

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel bounces around with it’s narrators. I find Zev to be the most compelling and wished for more chapters of him narrating. I found the others not as strong or well rounded. It seems perhaps less narrators could have helped the story. We are sucked in as a reader, to Zoey (nearly 16) who falls into a coma and her family (mom, dad, twin brother, older brother and younger sister).
It is an interesting look at how the diminished health of one daughter, impacts, her direct family members, friend and community.
Francesca seems like a fantastic doctor and friend. The interspersing of only Italian that an English speaker would understand, is odd and feels forced.
The pacing is quite slow for more than the first half, but the last third of the book is very good. It really touched me deeply and the last part of the story is so powerful. I would absolutely read more of the author’s upcoming work.

[Mari · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story drew me in right away - a lot of emotion in the opening chapter. An everyday family faces the biggest challenge of their lives, and each member tries to cope in their own way.

Teen-aged Zev’s twin sister Zoey experiences a traumatic brain injury (TBI) and lies comatose in the hospital. He feels lost without her constant companionship and extraverted personality. When will Zoey wake from the coma? Will she fully recover to be his closest companion again? He lives in denial and avoids visiting her in the hospital.

Their mother keeps constant vigil in Zoey's hospital room through the days and weeks of the coma. Can she continue this while attending to her family’s day-to-day needs? She worries about Zev who has become isolated and unwilling to talk. Her husband carries a an especially heavy load as a renowned neurologist who specializes in TBI rehabilitation. If his team can’t “cure” Zoey, will he continue his work?

Not only are the characters and their responses riveting, but the author has thoroughly researched TBI and its treatment and possible outcomes. As a physician, I appreciate the reality of the setting she has created. All the while, the story is one of resilience and family.

Recommended for readers who appreciate family drama and well-researched medical drama – with some magical realism added to the mix.

I received an advance review copy for free and leave this review voluntarily.

[Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the start of the book, I thought that it had similar vibes to books by Lisa Genova. Where Ms. Genova puts her primary focus on the medical condition and the person suffering from it, this book altered the focus to the family of those who are affected.

I like the idea of putting the focus on Zoey's parents and siblings because the impact of TBI is not limited to just the individual who incurs the injury. It showed the psychological toll a catastrophic injury takes on those who are going to have make adjustments when the injured person is released from the hospital. Every person in the household has to change mentally how they will cope. We see this most through Sam who thinks he can somehow use his medical knowledge to reverse the damage. I thought the conversation Sam had with Rabbi Friedman was a wonderful explanation of both religion and human limitations: "This is what I mean when I say God does the rest. Never mind about benign and malevolent entities. It's the idea of God I'm talking about, our acknowledgement that we're human, and not in complete control of the world."

This book was a good length - it probably took me 9-10 hours to finish; however, I think it easily could have doubled in size had there been more time allotted to Zoey's daily struggles. As stated above, I completely understand and appreciate the idea to divert the story away from Zoey and see her recovery through the eyes of others.

My favorite line in the book: "Mother had drummed the idea into her from an early age: When you are late, you signal the person waiting that your time is more valuable than theirs."

I am a huge fan of Lisa Genova and I thought this story hit a little too close to her book "Left Neglected" which is the only other piece of fiction I'm familiar with that addresses the issue of TBI, and more specifically, the medical condition known as "left neglect." Had I not read that book, this likely would have been a 5 star review.

I received an advance review copy for free from BookSirens, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Julie Bouchner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you, BookSirens and Vine Leaves Press, for the early read in exchange for my honest review.

Broken Chocolate follows the Sandor family after one of their children, fifteen-year-old Zoey, is left in a coma after a sudden accident. The story shifts between family members as they deal with medical uncertainty and the changes in their everyday lives. Zoey’s twin brother struggles without her, her father faces difficult choices tied to his work as a neurologist, and her mother tries to keep the family functioning as everything feels unstable. The story shows how a family adjusts when life suddenly takes an unexpected turn.

Rating: 4.5 ⭐ Wow, this book ripped me apart and made me feel every emotion. This is my first book by Miranda, and it definitely won’t be my last. The family dynamics felt real and relatable, from the way siblings lean on each other to the small, everyday ways parents hold everything together. It made me think about how fragile life can be and how much we take for granted in our own families. If you want a book that takes you through every emotion, try this one!

[Sha Mayari · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a rollercoaster of emotions. It is so greatly-written! I love the pacing, the dreams, the flashbacks, the characters, the dialogues— they're so raw— so real! The characters doesn't feel like merely just characters! As if they're real and what I'm reading is their real story— a nonfiction.

The characters have weaknesses and an even greater strengths to embrace their flaws. They're not perfect, not always logical, not always practical— they're human.

Thank you for this wonderful read, Rachel Miranda.

The Broken Chocolate, despite being broken, fixes something— not just for the characters but also for me too.

I am Sha Mayari and I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Karen Velleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rachel Miranda’s debut novel skillfully and empathetically shows how a traumatic brain injury (TBI) impacts not only the survivor, but the whole family. She weaves a connection between the clinical and the personal in this story of a beautifully complicated family, made even more complex as the father is a Physiatrist, or rehabilitation doctor. As therapist myself, explaining the visible and invisible nature of the challenges after TBI can be complicated, with a winding, at times uphill pathway for survivors. I thoroughly enjoyed this family and their story of putting the puzzle pieces back together.

[Dansinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me spellbound from page 1. Finished it yesterday evening and am still processing everything, so I'll update this review later.
For now, suffice it to say that I am absolutely going to buy the paperback. This book has earned a place right beside my all-time favourite: I Never Promised You A Rose Garden, by Hannah Green. I'll probably be rereading it just as often.