Option B

From the Facebook COO and #1 New York Times best-selling author of Lean In, and the #1 New York Times best-selling author of Originals: a powerful, inspiring and practical book about finding resilience and moving forward after life’s inevitable setbacks.

In 2015 Sheryl Sandberg's husband, Dave Goldberg, died suddenly at the age of forty-eight. Sandberg and her two young children were devastated, and she was certain that their lives would never have real joy or meaning again.

Just weeks later, Sandberg was talking with a friend about the first father-child activity without a father. They came up with a plan for someone to fill in. "But I want Dave," she cried. Her friend put his arm around her and said, "Option A is not available. So let's just kick the shit out of Option B."

Everyone experiences some form of Option B. We all deal with loss- jobs lost, loves lost, lives lost. The question is not whether these things will happen but how we face them when they do.

Thoughtful, honest, revealing and warm, Option B weaves Sandberg's experiences coping with adversity with new findings from Adam Grant and other social scientists. The book features stories of people who recovered from personal and professional hardship, including illness, injury, divorce, job loss, sexual assault and imprisonment. These people did more than recover-many of them became stronger.

Option Boffers compelling insights for dealing with hardships in our own lives and helping others in crisis. It turns out that post-traumatic growth is common-even after the most devastating experiences many people don't just bounce back but actually bounce forward. And pre-traumatic growth is also possible- people can build resilience even if they have not experienced tragedy. Sandberg and Grant explore how we can raise strong children, create resilient communities and workplaces, and find meaning, love and joy in our lives.

"Dave's death changed me in very profound ways," Sandberg writes. "I learned about the depths of sadness and the brutality of loss. But I also learned that when life sucks you under, you can kick against the bottom, break the surface and breathe again."

About the Authors

Sheryl Sandberg is Chief Operating Officer at Facebook. Prior to Facebook, Sandberg was Vice President of Global Online Sales and Operations at Google. She previously served as Chief of Staff for the United States Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton.

Adam Grant has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for seven straight years, and is a leading expert on how we can find motivation and meaning, and live more generous and creative lives. He has been recognized as one of the world's 10 most influential management thinkers and is the author of three New York Times bestselling books that have sold over a million copies. He is the host of WorkLife, a TED original podcast and his TED talks on original thinkers and givers and takers have been viewed more than 12 million times. Adam has more than 2 million followers on social media.