This is How you Lose Her, by Junot Diaz

Love that is lost means so much more when all that one has is the void that is left. Diaz shows how love comes in many forms, is felt on various levels, and can disappear as quickly as it first tickled one's heart. Yunior, an outrageously intelligent, hard-headed with a scarred past that leads him to rationalize lies that ultimately hurt and lead to the loss of the person her holds most dear.

While Yunior's story remains at the center, the trembling hearts of others swirl around him, as his best friend reveals a love child in the Dominican Republic, a woman struggling to make a living in the US with the distance from her family still at home tugging at her heart, and a young student grappling with an unexpected pregnancy that could keep her from an education that she has built her whole life around.

Yunior's older brother, Rafa, attempts to hold onto the last ounce of who he was before cancer dwindled him down to almost nothing while Yunior finds and loses himself in the arms of Alma, Miss Lora, Magdelina, and others. They bring wisdom, comfort, spontaneity, and sometimes nothing more than a warm touch.