Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole

Description

A powerful quest to understand how love, loss and sorrow make us whole, by the author of the megaselling phenomenon QUIET In this inspiring masterpiece, bestselling author Susan Cain shows the power of the "bittersweet" -- the outlook that values the experiences of loss and pain, which can lead to growth and beauty. Understanding bittersweetness can change the way we work, the way we create and the way we love. Each chapter helps us navigate an issue that define our lives, from love to death and from authenticity to creativity. Using examples ranging from music and cinema to parenting and business, as well as her own life and the latest academic research, she shows how understanding bittersweetness will allow us, in a flawed world, to accept the loss of past identities; to fully embrace the loves we have; and to weather life's transitions. Bittersweet reveals that vulnerability and even melancholy can be strengths, and that embracing our inevitable losses makes us more human and more whole. This is a book for those who have felt a piercing joy at the beauty of the world; who react intensely to art and nature; and in a culture that celebrates toughness, who yearn for a wiser and more meaningful world. For bittersweetness is the hidden source of our love stories, moonshots and masterpieces.

Susan Cain is the author of the Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller Quiet- The Power of Introverts in A World That Can't Stop Talking, which has sold over 2 million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages. Since her 2012 TED talk was posted online it has been viewed over 40 million times. Her writing on introversion and shyness has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Oprah magazine and Psychology Today. Cain has spoken at Microsoft and Google, has appeared on the BBC, and her work has been featured on the cover of Time, in the Daily Mail, the FT, the Atlantic, GQ, Grazia, the New Yorker, Wired, Fast Company, the Washington Post, CNN and beyond. She lives in the Hudson River Valley with her husband and two sons.

I'll place Bittersweet in the hands of all my feely, achy, beautiful friends -- Glennon Doyle, author of #1 NYT bestseller Untamed Susan Cain's Bittersweet grabs you by the heart and doesn't let go -- Brene Brown, author of the NYT bestseller Atlas of the Heart This is the rare book that doesn't just open your eyes - it touches your heart and sings to your soul -- Adam Grant, #1 NYT bestselling author of Think Again This book is an absolute triumph: it's for anyone who has ever really lived, loved, or lost -- Greg McKeown, author of NYT bestsellers Effortless and Essentialism An amazing and profound book . . . every single person should read it -- Johann Hari, bestselling author of Stolen Focus I can't get Quiet out of my head. It is an important book - so persuasive and timely and heartfelt it should inevitably effect change in schools and offices -- Jon Ronson on 'Quiet'