When something hits you so hard that you feel emptied out — a death, a breakup, news that a plan you had your whole heart in has failed — English speakers say they are devastated. It is much stronger than sad or upset; it is the feeling of being knocked flat. People use it in ordinary talk, not only in books: I was devastated. She looked devastated. Young people sometimes stretch it for smaller shocks (“I’m devastated — they sold out of the shoes”), and older people may raise an eyebrow, though actually almost everyone stretches it a little when they want you to feel how much it mattered. The same shape can talk about land or cities laid waste; that is a more physical use. Here we mean the heart.