Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole

The #1 New York Times bestseller - from the author of the international bestseller Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking! In her inspiring new masterpiece, the author of the bestselling phenomenon Quiet describes her powerful quest to understand how love, loss and sorrow make us whole - revealing the power of a bittersweet outlook on life. Bittersweetness is a tendency towards states of longing, poignancy and sorrow; an acute awareness of passing time; and a curiously piercing joy at the beauty of the world. It recognizes that light and dark, birth and death - bitter and sweet - are forever paired. If you seek out beauty in your everyday life, if you find comfort or inspiration in a rainy day, if you react intensely to music, art and nature … then you probably identify with the bittersweet state of mind. With Quiet, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an untapped power hidden in plain sight. Now she employs the same mix of research, storytelling and memoir to explore how embracing the bittersweetness at the heart of life is the true path to creativity and connection. Cain shows movingly how a bittersweet state of mind - though we've been blind to its value - is the quiet force that helps us transcend our personal and collective pain. This is a book for those who have felt a piercing joy at the beauty of the world, 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.