The Course of Love

Alain de Botton

A literary novel that follows Rabih and Kirsten, an Edinburgh couple, from their whirlwind courtship through the long, unglamorous work of marriage, parenthood, and the compromises that follow. De Botton interrupts the narrative with philosophical commentary, using the couple's story as a case study to argue that real love is a skill built through disappointment and negotiation rather than a fairy-tale feeling. It is less a conventional romance than a meditation on what happens after the 'happily ever after,' including the strains that test the marriage over the years.