Option B

I recommend this inspiring book to everyone around the world. None of us can escape sadness, loss, or life’s disappointments, so the best option is to find our Option B.

MALALA YOUSAFZAI, Nobel Peace Prize winner

Sheryl writes about her own heartbreaking experience with a rare honesty. Then she and Adam translate her personal story into a powerful, practical guide for anyone trying to build resilience in their own lives, communities, and companies. It’s hard enough to resonate with readers. It’s even harder to help take concrete steps towards a better future. Option B does both.

BILL AND MELINDA GATES, co-chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Thoughtful, insightful, and compelling. Both individually and collectively, we all need to understand the power of rehabilitation, recovery, and redemption if we are to overcome adversity. This incredible book doesn’t avoid the loss and tragedy we all sometimes encounter, but it is animated by a resolve that is both inspiring and instructive.

BRYAN STEVENSON, author of Just Mercy and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative

Option B is as hopeful as it is heartbreaking. Here are stories of sometimes unimaginable pain and loss, but also of how human beings nonetheless have the capacity to endure and even thrive. This book is not just an absorbing read. It also provides lessons that everyone needs to learn.

ATUL GAWANDE, author of Being Mortal

Illuminating, original, and deeply inspiring, Option B is one part riveting memoir, one part heal-your-heart boot camp, one part stories of others who learned to thrive in the face of profound loss: a practical, vital contribution to the literature on loss and resilience.

CHERYL STRAYED, author of Wild

Option B is the single wisest book about grief I have ever found ... I have tried to think of anyone who would not find Option B invaluable at some point in their life, and I can’t.

Decca Aitkenhead, Guardian

It's a humbling - and tearjerking - story of humanity.

Marisa Bate, The Pool

Remarkable, generous, honest, [and] almost unbearably poignant … This is a book that will be quietly passed from hand to hand, and it will surely offer great comfort to its intended readers.

New York Times

As someone who has spent the last 25 years immersed in the field of grief and bereavement I didn’t think I’d learn very much from Option B, but I did. It gave me useful ideas, ways of thinking and small steps that help rebuild a life after the death of someone we love. Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant have succeeded in combining useful information with heartfelt stories, which is illuminating and helpful. It is a book I highly recommend.

JULIA SAMUEL, author of Grief Works

Illuminating, original, and deeply inspiring, Sheryl Sandberg and Adam Grant’s Option B is one part riveting memoir, one part heal-your-heart boot camp. Sandberg writes movingly about her husband’s death and her journey forward afterwards. Sandberg and Grant also share stories of others who have suffered and learned to thrive in the face of profound loss. Option B is a practical, vital contribution to the literature on loss and resilience.

Cheryl Strayed