This autobiographical novel by Nora Ephron, Oscar-nominated screenwriter (When Harry Met Sally) and successful director (Sleepless in Seattle), is a bittersweet and very funny book about love and loss.

Published as part of a beautifully designed series to mark the 40th anniversary of the Virago Modern Classics.

Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel discovers that her husband is in love with another woman. The fact that this woman has a 'neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb' is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel is a cookery writer, and between trying to win Mark back and wishing him dead, she offers us some of her favourite recipes. Heartburn is a roller coaster of love, betrayal, loss and - most satisfyingly revenge.

This is Nora Ephron's roman a clef: 'I always thought during the pain of the marriage that one day it would make a funny book,' she once said - And it is!

Books included in the VMC 40th anniversary series include:

• Frost in May by Antonia White
• The Collected Stories of Grace Paley
• Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault
• The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter
• The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann
• Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith
• The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• Heartburn by Nora Ephron
• The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy
• Memento Mori by Muriel Spark 
• A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor
• and Faces in the Water by Janet Frame