> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 27 February 2013
  • ISBN: 9780141029191
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $24.99

Quiet

The power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking




The little book with a very big idea that has everyone talking

Quiet, the Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller by Susan Cain, will permanently change how we see introverts - and how you see yourself.

Our lives are driven by a fact most of us can't name and don't understand: whether we're an introvert or an extrovert. This defines who our friends and lovers are, which careers we choose, and whether we blush when we're embarrassed.

At least a third of us are on the introverted side. Some of the world's most talented people are introverts. Without them, we wouldn't have the Apple computer, the theory of relativity and Van Gogh's sunflowers.
Yet extroverts have taken over. Shyness, sensitivity and seriousness are often seen as being negative. Introverts feel reproached for being the way they are.

In Quiet, Susan Cain shows how the brain chemistry of introverts and extroverts differs, and how society misunderstands and undervalues introverts. She gives introverts the tools to better understand themselves and take full advantage of their strengths.

'I can't get Quiet out of my head. It is an important book - so persuasive and timely and heartfelt it should inevitably effect change in schools and offices' Jon Ronson, The Guardian

'Susan Cain's Quiet has sparked a quiet revolution...perhaps rather than sitting back and asking people to speak up, managers and company leaders might lean forward and listen' Megan Walsh, The Times

'Quiet is a very timely book...maybe the extrovert ideal is no longer as powerful as it was; perhaps it is time we all stopped to listen to the still, small voice of calm' Daisy Goodwin, The Sunday Times

  • Published: 27 February 2013
  • ISBN: 9780141029191
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $24.99

About the author

Susan Cain

Susan Cain is a writer who specializes in psychological non-fiction. She has a blog on psychology today.com, and her New York Times article on the evolutionary benefits of shyness was the most emailed article in the paper when published. She previously worked in corporate law for seven years, representing clients such as J. P. Morgan and General Electric, and then became a negotiations consultant with clients including Merrill Lynch and Shearman & Sterling. Susan Cain graduated with honors from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. She lives on the Hudson River, New York, with her husband and two sons.

www.thepowerofintroverts.com

Also by Susan Cain

See all

Praise for Quiet

Marvellous. The most important book published for a decade

Lynne Truss, Sunday Telegraph

Quiet is a very timely book, and Cain's central thesis is fresh and important. Maybe the extrovert ideal is no longer as powerful as it was; perhaps it is time we all stopped to listen to the still, small voice of calm

Daisy Goodwin, The Sunday Times

Susan Cain's Quiet has sparked a quiet revolution. In our booming culture, hers is a still, small voice that punches above its weight. Perhaps rather than sitting back and asking people to speak up, managers and company leaders might lean forward and listen

Megan Walsh, The Times

I can't get Quiet out of my head. It is an important book - so persuasive and timely and heartfelt it should inevitably effect change in schools and offices

Jon Ronson, The Guardian

A startling, important, and readable page-turner

Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth