July 2026: Annie Hartnett’s The Road to Tender Hearts

About this sermon

What if the stories that break your heart are also the ones that make you laugh the hardest? This week, Jen welcomes bestselling novelist Annie Hartnett to celebrate her wildly original new novel, The Road to Tender Hearts—a book that somehow holds profound grief, outrageous humor, unforgettable characters, and genuine hope all at once. Together they explore the beautiful tension between tragedy and comedy, why our most flawed people are often the easiest to love, and how storytelling can become its own kind of healing. Annie shares how a year of seemingly endless disasters—including floods, gas leaks, rats, tragedy, and the overwhelming uncertainty of early motherhood—became the emotional foundation for an unexpectedly joyful novel. She also reveals the remarkable true stories behind the book, from the nursing home cat who could sense when someone was nearing the end of life to the larger-than-life father who inspired one of its most beloved characters. The result is a conversation about what it means to transform fear into art and find unexpected beauty in life's messiest chapters. Jen and Annie also swap stories about the teachers who recognized their gifts before they recognized them themselves, the fathers who filled their childhoods with larger-than-life stories, and the ways our families—both the ones we're born into and the ones we create—leave fingerprints on everything we write. It's a tender reminder that encouragement can alter the course of a life, and that the people who shape us often find their way onto the page in surprising ways. The two dive into the wonderfully mysterious process of writing fiction, from Annie's "year of floundering" before every novel to the challenge of balancing darkness with delight. They discuss why readers are drawn to imperfect characters, how humor can make even the hardest truths bearable, and why the best stories refuse to choose between sorrow and joy. As Annie puts it through one of her unforgettable characters: life is suffering and joy. Whether you're an avid reader, an aspiring writer, or simply someone trying to make sense of life's contradictions, this conversation is an invitation to embrace the beautiful, complicated, and often hilarious work of being human. Thought-provoking Quotes: ★ "I realized (through writing) that I could be exactly who I am. I could write about whatever I wanted. I could be weird, and I could be really accepted. I didn't have to be well behaved."-- Annie Hartnett ★ "It's really hard to put a price tag on what it is like growing up with dads and grandpas who create big worlds for us and feed our imaginations and teach us the power of a good story. That is gold." – Jen Hatmaker ★ "I love people despite their flaws. Sometimes because of their flaws. That's actually how I fall in love with people—they start telling me their secrets, and then I fall in love with them much more." – Annie Hartnett Resources Mentioned in This Episode: ➢ The Road to Tender Hearts: A Novel by Annie Hartnett - https://amzn.to/4flPRuo ➢ David Sedaris - https://www.davidsedarisontour.com/ ➢ Dylan Thomas - https://poetryfoundation.org/poets/dylan-thomas ➢ Oscar the "death-predicting" nursing home cat - https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp078108 ➢ Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash - https://amzn.to/4p30o0M ➢ Jen Hatmaker Book Club - https://jenhatmaker.com/bookclub/ Guest’s Links: Website - https://www.anniehartnett.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/annie_hartnett Substack - https://anniehartnett.substack.com/ Connect with Jen! Jen’s Website - https://jenhatmaker.com/ Jen’s Instagram - https://instagram.com/jenhatmaker Jen’s Twitter - https://twitter.com/jenHatmaker/ Jen’s Facebook - https://facebook.com/jenhatmaker Jen’s YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/JenHatmaker The For the Love Podcast is presented by Audacy.