Whether you long for the partner who broke up with you, or the one you dream of meeting; whether you hunger for the happy childhood you'll never have, or for the divine; whether you yearn for a lost person, an unborn child, the fountain of youth, or unconditional love: These are all manifestations of the same great ache... In this inspiring and genre-bending work, Susan Cain - author of the international bestseller Quiet - shows us the power of a "bittersweet" outlook: the overlooked tendency to states of longing and poignancy, and a piercing joy at the beauty of the world. Embracing the bittersweet means understanding that light and dark, birth and death - bitter and sweet - are forever paired, and that by recognising this we can find the true path to creativity and connection.

Bringing to light the ideas of artists, writers and thinkers from all over the world, and her own quest for answers over the course of a lifetime, Susan Cain fundamentally shifts our understanding of life by teaching us how to turn sorrow into an enriching superpower.