Breasts
On sale
3rd April 2025
Price: £12
Genre
‘Has the power to knock the breath out of you’
THE TIMES
‘A must-read’
JESSIE BURTON
‘One of the most brilliant writers of her generation, as witty, wry and unsentimental as Nora Ephron’
OLIVIA LAING
‘I LOVED this book’
NINA STIBBE
As she comes of age, she learns that breasts are a source of both shame and power. In early motherhood, she sees her breasts transform into a source of sustenance and a locus of pain. And then, all too soon, she is faced with a diagnosis and forced to confront what it means to lose and rebuild an essential part of yourself.
Funny and moving, elegant and furious and full of heart, Breasts is an original and indispensable read. It is both an intimate account of one woman’s relationship with her own body and a universally relatable story for anyone who has ever had – or lost – breasts.
‘Painful and funny and essential’
FRANCESCA SEGAL
‘A thunderclap . . . I was blown away’
MARIANNE LEVY
‘A tit punch of a book’
ROSAMUND DEAN
‘Nobody writes about the curveballs life throws at you, or helps you deal with them, like Jean Hannah Edelstein’
DAVID WHITEHOUSE
THE TIMES
‘A must-read’
JESSIE BURTON
‘One of the most brilliant writers of her generation, as witty, wry and unsentimental as Nora Ephron’
OLIVIA LAING
‘I LOVED this book’
NINA STIBBE
In this short, striking memoir, Jean Hannah Edelstein charts the course of her unexpectedly brief relationship with breasts.
As she comes of age, she learns that breasts are a source of both shame and power. In early motherhood, she sees her breasts transform into a source of sustenance and a locus of pain. And then, all too soon, she is faced with a diagnosis and forced to confront what it means to lose and rebuild an essential part of yourself.
Funny and moving, elegant and furious and full of heart, Breasts is an original and indispensable read. It is both an intimate account of one woman’s relationship with her own body and a universally relatable story for anyone who has ever had – or lost – breasts.
‘Painful and funny and essential’
FRANCESCA SEGAL
‘A thunderclap . . . I was blown away’
MARIANNE LEVY
‘A tit punch of a book’
ROSAMUND DEAN
‘Nobody writes about the curveballs life throws at you, or helps you deal with them, like Jean Hannah Edelstein’
DAVID WHITEHOUSE
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Reviews
Has the power to knock the breath out of you . . . you relish her cool eloquence and wit, then feel the burn of her white-hot rage. To many women, Edelstein's words will feel cathartic . . . Breasts feels like a classic
I gobbled it up in a day and found it such a pleasure to read - frank, witty, moving, true . . . beautiful
Breasts is incredibly moving and sad and funny and absolutely a book everyone should read . . . You'll read it in a sitting and it will change you
I loved this book. A perfect small-form memoir, it is smart, funny and heartbreaking. It has made me think again about the body and how it shapes us and our identity, and how all of a sudden it can take such a tragically different turn. It is the best account of the shock of losing your breasts to cancer I have read. Devastating, but also funny, illuminating and charming, leaving me rooting for Edelstein, and wanting to get my hands on everything else she has written
So good. Made me laugh out loud and cry, sometimes in the span of the same page
Absolutely loved it. Painful and funny and essential
A wonderful book about the author's unexpectedly brief relationship with her breasts. The titles of the book's three sections will give you an idea of what happens: sex, food, cancer. Edelstein is a brilliantly clear-eyed and insightful writer and packs so much into only 100 pages
I read it very quickly - the writing is compulsive - but it's stayed with me for much longer. Deeply personal and extremely incisive . . . heartbreaking
I would read anything Jean Hannah Edelstein writes. Breasts is a thunderclap of a memoir. When I read it, in a single sitting, I was blown away. Breasts is one of those books you read and just know instantly that it's going into the canon; it feels so urgent, and yet somehow like it's always existed. The writing is stunning, lyrical and funny and absolutely smarting with truth. Reading it, I felt seen in a way I haven't for a long time, and that I was being given permission to be angry about so many experiences I had dismissed or buried or been told to ignore. I love how fearlessly Edelstein writes, how she embraces contradiction, how funny she is and how deeply she feels. It is a difficult time to be a woman and books like this have never been more vital. Read it if you have breasts or if you know someone with breasts
This is an uplifting volume, as well as a short, sharp shock . . . fascinating and important . . . How wonderful that we have this sane, detailed and funny account
In this unwavering, sharp and profoundly thoughtful memoir, Jean Hannah Edelstein unfolds her experiences, both universal and devastatingly unique, with trademark tenderness and wit . . . a must-read
A tit punch of a book, in a good way. Painful, breathtaking, visceral and galvanising
Brilliant and exquisite. Nobody writes about the curveballs life throws at you, or helps you deal with them, like Jean Hannah Edelstein
A witty, fearless, political and yet highly personal essay that is also an inspired piece of writing. In economic and elegant prose, Edelstein's superbly crafted tribute to the most fêted (and fetishised) part of female anatomy explores issues of shame, pleasure and loss - and is, ultimately, triumphant. Breasts is compulsively readable
Jean Hannah Edelstein is honest, cynical, loving and funny. Breasts is a special book - short and powerful with no messing around. For people with breasts, mothers, women with cancer, and the people who love them, it will be an indispensable read
A bittersweet, powerful gut-punch of a memoir
Powerful, funny, frank, furious and moving
I devoured it in one sitting. An incredibly moving and memorable portrait of womanhood and how the world responds to women's bodies. All in Jean Hannah Edelstein's enviously economic, funny, smart and beautiful prose
Unique and beautiful . . . so tender and furious and funny
A deeply moving and funny three-part memoir centred on the author's relationship to her breasts. From sex, power and the male gaze to feeding, motherhood and illness . . . I loved it
Jean Hannah Edelstein is a glorious writer. I LOVED this book - furious and moving and laugh-out-loud funny
With brevity, piquancy and wit, Jean Hannah Edelstein has written a memoir that speaks directly to the public and private nature of bodies and autonomy. Her prose has the buoyancy and bravery of fellow New Yorker Laurie Colwin