The Incurable Romantic

Frank Tallis brings a lifetime's clinical experience and wise reflection to a condition that, by its own strange routes, leads us into the very heart of love itself. This is a brilliant, compelling book

Ian McEwan

Thoughtful . . . Tallis has a graceful narrative style, easily incorporating brief digressions on deeper philosophical issues such as free will versus determinism. Most importantly, his book is suffused with compassion, avoiding facile categorization and struggling to understand and empathize with his patients as people in pain

Publishers Weekly

A gifted storyteller . . . Tallis's characters remain sharply, painfully real, their stories as inconclusive, messy and fascinating as life

The Economist

It is utterly compelling: the details, the dialogue, which bring each character, however heavily disguised, leaping off the page. Tallis's years of close observation might not always have solved his patients' problems . . . but they have helped turn him into a fine writer . . . He knows how to tell a story. Boy, does he know how to tell a story. This powerful and moving book is not just about individual cases. It's also about what the human animal needs . . . They are certainly enough here to create something that feels profoundly truthful. Something that feels, in fact, like an act of love

Sunday Times

[Tallis is] a brilliant raconteur with an acute ear for dialogue and sleuth-like capabilities. Only someone who has never felt sick falling head over heels, suffered the agonising pangs of jealousy, battled bestial fogs of lust or wallowed in the delirious happiness of being entwined with the object of their love could fail to be fascinated

Evening Standard

Will interest anyone who wants to know what makes people tick . . . The Incurable Romantic earns its place in the fine tradition of popular psychoanalytic writing . . . an amiable and acute guide to the madness of love

The Times

This fascinating memoir peers deep into the dark heart of love

Herald

Frank, informative and often bleakly funny

Telegraph

Tallis's book reminded me of Do No Harm by the neurosurgeon Henry Marsh . . . Through these cases Tallis makes a strong case that "love" can be the cause of great distress in many ways. He intersperses the cases with observations from history, literature, and scientific reports, making for an enjoyable, entertaining, and informative read

British Medical Journal Opinion

Tallis's book is about what happens when these perfectly ordinary feelings become warped, excessive, and unmanageable in some of his patients, and as you can imagine, it's pretty gripping . . . The great thing about The Incurable Romantic is that it makes you feel better about yourself. Whether you're happily or unhappily married, happily or unhappily single, involved in an adulterous relationship with another person or even several other people, you're doing better than these guys

Nick Hornby

Outstanding

Strong Words

Eye-opening stories of lovesickness, rampant sex, and obsessions with inappropriate partners

Guardian

Like a 70s Woody Allen movie, hilarious and tragic - strangely compelling

Libreria London

Astute, self-deprecating and funny

Literary Review

Frank Tallis draws his characters with such wit and skill that at times it reminded me of novels such as The Collector or Enduring Love

Guardian

His case studies are fascinating

Michelle Paver