The Only Thing There Is to Want, Sarah Hepola
The Only Thing There Is to Want, Sarah Hepola
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The Only Thing There Is to Want
A Memoir of Three Loves

Author: Sarah Hepola

Narrator: Sarah Hepola

Unabridged: TBD

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/29/2026

Synopsis

The New York Times bestselling author of Blackout excavates the three romantic entanglements that defined her adulthood—an electrifying examination of the blurry line between affection and obsession revealing the restless wanting that hums in us all.

“Insightful, original, and hilarious . . . When it comes to memoir, [Hepola] is one of the best to ever do it.”—Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group

“I’m scared I only want what I can’t have,” I said.
“Oh baby,” he said. “It’s the only thing there is to want.”

Sarah Hepola wanted so much: a big career; travel and adventure; deep relationships; passion. Having realized so many of those desires, she also grieved the ways her life was not what she’d always imagined it would be. Did I make the wrong choices? she wondered. Love the wrong people? Is love even a choice?

In The Only Thing There Is To Want, she revisits three complicated love affairs from her past, seeking to understand how they might have kept her from the life she’d envisioned, but also made her who she is. Tracing her search for love, she uncovers the myths she once believed could make her whole.

This dazzling portrait of modern romance captures the paradox of desire: wanting propels us forward and holds us back. Funny, achingly tender, and fearlessly intimate, The Only Thing There Is to Want is about discovering the beauty in the life you’ve built.

About The Author

Sarah Hepola's essays have appeared in the New York Times magazine, Texas Monthly, The Atlantic, The Cut, Elle, The Guardian, and Salon, where she was a longtime editor. Her first book, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank To Forget, was a New York Times bestseller. She's the creator and host of the Texas Monthly narrative podcast America's Girls, about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, and the co-host of the weekly culture podcast, Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em. Hepola lives in Dallas, Texas where she is a staff writer for the Dallas Morning News.

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Quotes

“The Only Thing There is to Want is Sarah Hepola’s courageous and compelling exploration of the gap between the life we imagine and the life we create—a life shaped by loves given and taken away. Hepola’s profound insights and masterful storytelling reveal how our most complicated relationships often pave the path to self-understanding.”—Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone

“[Sarah] Hepola’s prose consistently spins ordinary circumstances into gold; every interaction is scintillating, every scrap of dialogue witty. This bittersweet account offers a tart and intelligent assessment of the tussle to find lasting love.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Fans of Blackout will recognize the same fearless honesty and propulsive readability. The tone is so casual, so conversational, that it’s easy to miss just how good a writer Hepola is: The prose is precise even when it’s taking risks, unexpected turns of phrase landing with the ease of a friend talking you through her worst nights. A brilliant autopsy of loves lost.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“A dazzling, insightful, original, and hilarious memoir . . . Readers will have their hearts broken alongside Hepola, and they will grow hoarse cheering for her satisfaction and liberation. Best of all, they will revel in her singular voice and hard-won wisdom as she proves that, when it comes to memoir, sheʼs one of the best to ever do it.”—Christie Tate, New York Times bestselling author of Group: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life

“Sarah Hepola writes with so much heat about the pull toward a turn-your-soul-inside-out closeness. The Only Thing There Is to Want is a demonstration of her seductive powers: Her writing is magnetic, incandescent, and gripping.”—Susan Burton, author of Empty

“This is a love letter to the girls we used to be, the women we became, and the messy middle of everything in between. Imagine if Girls and Fleabag had a baby. That’s the kind of grit, humor, nostalgia, and darkness you’ll find in these pages.”—Ruthie Ackerman, author of The Mother Code: My Story of Love, Loss, and the Myths That Shape Us

“Sarah Hepolaʼs witty, candid, and gripping portrait of modern love plumbs the depths of desire, heartbreak, and a form of grief we don’t often name—capturing something essential about the search for connection in our disjointed age.”—Ada Calhoun, New York Times bestselling author of Why We Can't Sleep and Crush

“In this candid, witty, and reflective memoir, Hepola reminds us that while some relationships come and go, the best love stories are the ones that exist in our life all along. A beautiful and heartfelt read!”—Kerry Docherty, author of Selfish

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