The Museum of Heartbreak Author Meg Leder Curates Her Own Exhibit

I love museums. Of course I love the bigger, more established ones, like the American Museum of Natural History in NYC and the Wellcome Collection London. But I also love the small, strange ones—the Museum of Jurassic Technology in LA, the Museum of Funeral Carriages in Barcelona, and NYC’s THNK1994, a museum dedicated to Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan.
Needless to say, museums play a large role in my novel The Museum of Heartbreak. The American Museum of Natural History takes center stage, but there’s also a smaller, hand-curated museum—the one created by my main character Penelope—that is the literal beating heart of the book.
So as an homage to museums and to curating and to Penelope’s own museum, I’m curating my own mini-exhibit, one that shows the objects behind the creation of The Museum of Heartbreak.
Enjoy your time at the museum!

Anne of Green Gables
Bantam Books, New York, 1986
Private collection of Meg Leder
Growing up, Anne of Green Gables was one of my favorite books. I had to get rid of a lot of my books when I moved to NYC, but this one survived the cut. I remember reading it the summer before eighth grade and dreaming about being a writer, much like Anne Shirley did. And like my main character, Penelope, I also wished I could fall in love with with someone as wonderful as Gilbert Blythe.

Hot chocolate, buttered toast, and Pellegrino at Brooklyn coffee shop
Photograph, May 2016
I write in my apartment as much as I can, but my cat Rigs often makes it difficult. Instead of my laptop, he’d rather be the item occupying my lap. So on days he’s feeling particularly needy, I write at a Brooklyn coffee shop. Ordering these three items are my cue it’s time to sit down and start the day’s ritual of writing. Much of The Museum of Heartbreak was fueled by hot chocolate, toast, and sparkling water.

Blue lapis revision ring and silver cloud sabbatical ring
Lapis ring, O’Suzannah, Charlottesville, Virginia, 2015
Silver ring, Corpus Christie, Paris, France, 2015
Both private collection of Meg Leder
While I love writing, I don’t always love the process of sitting down and actually doing the work. But I’ve found rewarding myself when I hit milestones to be helpful. I bought this blue lapis ring when I was visiting good friends in Virginia, but didn’t let myself wear it until I finished the final revision for The Museum of Heartbreak. I’ve named it my Revision Ring. And I bought the silver ring for myself in Paris when I took a sabbatical from work last year. I spent much of that sabbatical staring at clouds and then writing, so this is a reminder of all the work and dreaming I accomplished during that time.

Dinosaur necklace
Dinosaur necklace, Etsy, 2010
All private collection of Meg Leder
The Museum of Heartbreak is structured around different artifacts that Penelope has gathered in order to tell her story and win back everything she’s lost. These are a few of the items that inspired the story (and that appear on the actual book cover!). I bought this dinosaur necklace when I started writing the book. It’s a lot like the one Pen receives late in the book. Every time I needed extra inspiration for getting inside my characters’ heads, I wore it as a good luck token.

My first copy of my beautiful finished book!
Simon Pulse, New York, 2016
Private collection of Meg Leder
In my day job, I’m a nonfiction editor at Penguin Books. I love sending my authors the first early copies of their books, because it’s like, Here! Look at the beautiful effect of all your hard work! So the day the team at Simon Pulse gave me my first finished copy of my book, I had a hard time letting it go. I wanted to carry it with me everywhere. I’m so in love with the cover and the interior and the illustrations from Adam James Turnbull, and when I hold it, I’m like, wow, this is six years of my writing life, here in my hands! Much like items in a museum, this book is something that’s mine, but it’s also something other people will now spend time with, which is pretty dang cool. I think Anne Shirley would be proud.
The Museum of Heartbreak hits shelves June 7 and is available for pre-order now.