Uncoupling: How and Why Relationships Come Apart by Diane Vaughan

How do relationships end? Why does one partner suddenly become discontented with the other and why is the onset of that discontentment not so sudden after all? What signals do partners send each other to indicate their doubts? Why do those signals often go unnoticed? And how do people who saw themselves as part of a couple come to terms, not just with absence and abandonment, but with a new, single identity? Based on a combination of interviews and extensive research, this book offers an account of what happens when relationships come apart. It reveals a process that begins in secret but gradually becomes public, implicating not only partners but their whole social milieu.