Susan Horowitz Cain (b. 1968) is an American writer and lecturer, and author of the 2012 non-fiction bestseller, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. Quiet is a book I can readily identify with, and which has helped me understand and appreciate my own introspection. I highly recommended it, and not just for introverts!

Meanwhile, her new book, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Makes us Whole is just out. This is another book that grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go. The bittersweet state of mind is not about perpetual angst or melancholy. It is about gracefully acquiescing to the ineluctable dichotomies that gives life its richness and meaning.

Susan writes, “the recognition that light and dark, birth and death—bitter and sweet—are forever paired.” From acceptance, she urges us to work towards a state where we ‘graduate’ and mature into human beings able to unleash the power of creativity that resides inside us, the power that gives life its resilience and its joy. If there is one quote I like to share from the book, it is this: