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. It can change the way we live, the way we work and the way we love. If we realize that all humans know – or will know – loss and suffering, we can turn towards one another.

At a time of profound discord and personal anxiety, Bittersweet brings us together in deep and unexpected ways.

Our lives are driven by a fact that most of us can’t name and don’t understand. It defines who our friends and lovers are, which careers we choose, and whether we blush when we’re embarrassed.

That fact is whether we’re an introvert or an extrovert.

The most fundamental dimension of personality, at least a third of us are introverts, and yet shyness, sensitivity and seriousness are often seen as a negative. Some of the world’s most talented people are introverts – without them we wouldn’t have the Apple computer, the theory of relativity and Van Gogh’s sunflowers. In Quiet, Susan Cain shows how society misunderstands and undervalues introverts while giving them the tools to better understand themselves and take full advantage of their strengths.

Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with real stories, whether an introvert or extrovert, this book will change how you see human beings for good.

*****

‘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, The Guardian

‘Susan Cain’s Quiet has sparked a quiet revolution . . . Perhaps rather than sitting back and asking people to speak up, managers and company leaders might lean forward and listen’ Megan Walsh, The Times

‘Maybe the extrovert ideal is no longer as powerful as it was; perhaps it is time we all stopped to listen to the still, small voice of calm’ Daisy Goodwin, The Sunday Times