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This is Also a Love Story by Sally Hayden

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This is Also a Love Story

Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Publish Date
21 May 2026
Run Time
9 hours 42 minutes
Format
Audiobook
Rating
5.0 (1 review)

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What to expect

‘Deeply moving and necessary’ ANNE ENRIGHT

‘A must-read’ iPAPER

‘Remarkable … affecting’ NEW STATESMAN

‘Original and heart-warming’ LINDSEY HILSUM

From the Orwell Prize-winning author of My Fourth Time, We Drowned comes a powerful account of human resilience, capturing our capacity for love and connection against all odds.

We live in an era defined by crisis – whether it be war and displacement, or climate collapse and rapidly widening inequality. Acclaimed international correspondent Sally Hayden has spent her career covering some of the darkest moments of our time, and yet even in the face of unimaginable adversity, she’s witnessed the love and care of everyday people.

Hayden introduces us to a couple separated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a mother in northeast Nigeria who risks everything to save her daughter from forced marriage to Boko Haram militants. We meet a group of Syrian women searching tirelessly for their missing spouses and children, while launching a call for justice, and learn about letters from the bereaved to the dead, still being written over a decade after the tsunami that devastated Japan.

In stories that crisscross the globe, from Uganda to Lebanon, Rwanda to Iraq, Hayden asks us: what if news was recounted through the actions people take for those they love? Would it become harder to dehumanise those who seem different to us? This is Also a Love Story dares us to recognise how love can be found in even the most difficult of times, and to question what might be needed to create a better world.

‘Moving … Hayden is an excellent journalist’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘Beautiful, painful and in many ways restorative … I recommend it highly’ MARIAN KEYES, author of My Favourite Mistake

‘Remarkable … the perfect antidote to our times’ CHRISTINA LAMB, author Our Bodies, Their Battlefields

‘A beautiful meditation on love … [Hayden] is our most vital journalist’ IRISH TIMES

‘Shows us that in the midst of war, around the most acute suffering, there is also tremendous heroism’ NATHAN THRALL, author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama

‘A reporter of the first order … A searching, deeply moving work’ JONATHAN BLITZER, author of Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here

‘Hayden uncovers miracles. She may be one herself’ ALEX PERRY, author of Blood Will Flow

Critics Review

  • ‘A remarkable exploration of the human capacity for forgiveness … all the more affecting for its restraint’ New Statesman
  • ‘Our most vital journalist, refusing to stop humanising those whose humanity is denied by those who perpetuate cruelty and unfairness’ Irish Times
  • ‘It is the stories of romantic love that are, for me, the most moving … Hayden is an excellent journalist’ Sunday Times
  • ‘With world events as bleak as they are, here is a must-read’ iPaper
See more reviews
  • ‘Heartening and fascinating … Hayden is an eloquent writer and one whose words carry weight’ Literary Review
  • ‘The best Irish journ­al­ist writ­ing today … remind[s] read­ers of those aspects of our human­ity that make life worth per­sever­ing with – and report­ing on’ Belfast Telegraph
  • ‘A deeply moving and necessary book … [Hayden] gives us something to hold on to, in dark times’ Anne Enright, author of Attention
  • ‘Beautiful, painful and in many ways restorative … I recommend it highly’ Marian Keyes, author of My Favourite Mistake
  • ‘Heart-warming … By finding beauty amidst ugliness, Hayden finds a way of making our fractured world whole again’ Lindsey Hilsum, author of I Brought The War With Me
  • ‘Remarkable … the perfect antidote to our times’ Christina Lamb, author of Our Bodies, Their Battlefields
  • ‘Shows us that in the midst of war, around the most acute suffering, there is also tremendous heroism’ Nathan Thrall, author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama
  • ‘A reporter of the first order … A searching, deeply moving work’ Jonathan Blitzer, author of Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here
  • ‘Hayden uncovers miracles. She may be one herself’ Alex Perry, author of Blood Will Flow
  • ‘A beautifully penned tribute to what can keep us human in the face of catastrophe’ Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory
  • ‘A beautiful book, as heart-lifting as it is heartrending’ Leila Molana-Allen, Special Correspondent, PBS Newshour
  • ‘Brilliant. Bringing back hope to humanity’ Kojo Koram, author of Uncommon Wealth

User Reviews

Book 5.0

Narration 5.0

  • No written reviews yet.

Details

Author
Sally Hayden
Narrator
Aoife McMahon
Duration
9 hours 42 minutes
Release Date
21 May 2026
ISBN
9780008623296
Format
Audiobook
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Genre
Corruption in politics, government and society, Reportage, journalism or collected columns, True stories of heroism, endurance and survival, True stories of survival of abuse and injustice, Relationships: friends / friendship and peer groups: advice, topics and issues, Refugees and political asylum
Rating
5.0(1 review)
Narration
5.0(1 review)

Synopsis

‘Deeply moving and necessary’ ANNE ENRIGHT ‘A must-read’ iPAPER ‘Remarkable … affecting’ NEW STATESMAN ‘Original and heart-warming’ LINDSEY HILSUM From the Orwell Prize-winning author of My Fourth Time, We Drowned comes a powerful account of human resilience, capturing our capacity for love and connection against all odds. We live in an era defined by crisis – whether it be war and displacement, or climate collapse and rapidly widening inequality. Acclaimed international correspondent Sally Hayden has spent her career covering some of the darkest moments of our time, and yet even in the face of unimaginable adversity, she’s witnessed the love and care of everyday people. Hayden introduces us to a couple separated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and a mother in northeast Nigeria who risks everything to save her daughter from forced marriage to Boko Haram militants. We meet a group of Syrian women searching tirelessly for their missing spouses and children, while launching a call for justice, and learn about letters from the bereaved to the dead, still being written over a decade after the tsunami that devastated Japan. In stories that crisscross the globe, from Uganda to Lebanon, Rwanda to Iraq, Hayden asks us: what if news was recounted through the actions people take for those they love? Would it become harder to dehumanise those who seem different to us? This is Also a Love Story dares us to recognise how love can be found in even the most difficult of times, and to question what might be needed to create a better world. ‘Moving … Hayden is an excellent journalist’ SUNDAY TIMES ‘Beautiful, painful and in many ways restorative … I recommend it highly’ MARIAN KEYES, author of My Favourite Mistake ‘Remarkable … the perfect antidote to our times’ CHRISTINA LAMB, author Our Bodies, Their Battlefields ‘A beautiful meditation on love … [Hayden] is our most vital journalist’ IRISH TIMES ‘Shows us that in the midst of war, around the most acute suffering, there is also tremendous heroism’ NATHAN THRALL, author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama ‘A reporter of the first order … A searching, deeply moving work’ JONATHAN BLITZER, author of Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here ‘Hayden uncovers miracles. She may be one herself’ ALEX PERRY, author of Blood Will Flow

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