-
Imprint: Viking
-
Published: 21/04/2022
-
ISBN: 9780241300664
-
Length: 296 Pages
-
Dimensions: 240mm x 28mm x 156mm
-
Weight: 500g
-
RRP: £20.00
Bittersweet
-
How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE INTERNATIONAL MEGASELLER QUIET: THE POWER OF INTROVERTS IN A WORLD THAT CAN'T STOP TALKING
In this inspiring masterpiece, bestselling author Susan Cain shows the power of "bittersweetness" - a tendency toward sorrow and longing, an acute awareness of passing time, and a piercing joy when beholding beauty. But what are the powers of a bittersweet, melancholic outlook? she asks. And why has our culture been so blind to its value?
Bittersweetness recognizes that light and dark, birth and death - bitter and sweet - are forever paired. As Bittersweet shows, our obsession with happiness is not making us happy, healthy, or whole. It's only by embracing our darker emotions - as well as the light - that we discover our deepest meaning and connection, love and joy. It can change the way we work, the way we create and the way we love - for it is the hidden source of our love stories, moonshots and masterpieces.
With over 4 million copies sold worldwide, Susan Cain's Quiet explored the quiet riches of the introverted half of the population. In Bittersweet, Cain employs the same mix of research, storytelling, and memoir. Following a trail of centuries-old artistic and wisdom traditions as well as contemporary psychology and management research, and reflecting on the emotional shifts of recent times, Cain reveals how bittersweetness is the key to leading a full and satisfying life. Using examples ranging from music and cinema to parenting and business, she shows how understanding bittersweetness will allow us to weather life's transitions; yet, until now, its power has been hiding in plain sight.
At a time of profound discord and personal anxiety, Bittersweet brings us together in deep and unexpected ways. Most of all, it shows us how to transform our personal and collective pain into creativity, transcendence, and connection.
-
Imprint: Viking
-
Published: 21/04/2022
-
ISBN: 9780241300664
-
Length: 296 Pages
-
Dimensions: 240mm x 28mm x 156mm
-
Weight: 500g
-
RRP: £20.00
Reviews
-
A decade ago, I found myself inside Quiet. With Bittersweet, Susan Cain has described and validated my existence once again! Bittersweet reaffirmed that my constant, achy awareness of life's brutiful is a way of life shared across the ages with artists, healers and anyone who pays deep attention. 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. I've thought about the depth and beauty in Susan's research and storytelling every day since I finished the book. I will always be grateful for how much Quiet and Bittersweet have helped me understand myself and how I engage with the world
Brené 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. Susan Cain gave a voice to introverts, and now she masterfully paints our heaviest emotions in a light that's long overdue. Bittersweet is the perfect cure for toxic positivity and a sparkling ode to the beauty of the human condition
Adam Grant, #1 NYT bestselling author of Think Again
-
Susan Cain does it again! As the author of the worldwide phenomenon Quiet she changed how the world sees introverts. Now she has written a book that will change how the world sees sorrow and longing. 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 about some of the most important feelings in human life - ones that our culture averts its gaze from, but now, thanks to Susan Cain, we can think about, and experience, with extraordinary clarity. Every single person should read it
Johann Hari, bestselling author of Stolen Focus
-
Nourishing and wise, Bittersweet fills a gap in our culture that many of us have felt keenly: the need for sadness, poignancy and yearning as part of the full spectrum of human emotion. Just like Quiet, I felt like an aspect of myself was honoured in these pages
Katherine May, author of Wintering
-
In a profound new book set to be as influential as Quiet, Cain - who is obsessed with Leonard Cohen's music - argues that recognising the value of the "bittersweet" - that is, learning to weather times of pain and loss - is powerful and vital
The Bookseller
-
Susan Cain finds what is undervalued, quiet, and precious. In Bittersweet she takes you to a room in your own heart full of treasures that you had forgotten about. This is a book to read, feel, and savour
Jonathan Haidt, Professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU and author of The Righteous Mind
-
Bittersweet is astonishing -- one of the most gracefully written, palpably human books I've read in years. Its powerful case will reshape how you think about yourself and those you love. Its sheer beauty will linger in your heart long after you turn the final page
Daniel H Pink, #1 NYT bestselling author of WHEN, DRIVE and A WHOLE NEW MIND
-
An eye-opening take on the underestimated virtues of melancholy . . . this ambitious work impresses in its dexterous integration of disparate thought traditions into a cohesive, moving, and insightful whole. Like a more intuitive Malcolm Gladwell, Cain delivers a deeply felt study of the profound uses of sorrow and melancholy, a perfect manual for coping with tough times
Publishers Weekly
