Bittersweet
By Susan Cain
- Genre
- Psychology, Philosophy & Personal Development
- Publisher
- Crown (Penguin Random House)
- Publication year
- 2022
- ISBN
- 9780451499783
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole is a work of nonfiction by the author Susan Cain, published by Crown in April 2022. It argues that melancholy and longing are sources of creativity and meaning. A #1 New York Times bestseller, it was an Oprah's Book Club selection.
After championing introverts in Quiet, Susan Cain turns to another undervalued disposition: the bittersweet temperament, that tendency toward melancholy, longing and a keen awareness of impermanence. In Bittersweet she argues that sorrow and yearning are not weaknesses to be fixed but sources of creativity, connection and meaning - the wellspring of our most moving music, art and acts of love. Drawing on psychology, poetry and her own life, Cain makes the case that a culture obsessed with relentless positivity has lost something vital. intendle recommends it for anyone who feels the poignancy of things and has been told to cheer up; here is a book that honors the tender, minor key. A #1 New York Times bestseller and an Oprah's Book Club pick, it is consoling without being saccharine. It gives permission to feel the full range of human emotion - and finds beauty precisely in the ache.