Skip to content
Responsive image
Vendor
Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
Categories
Weblink
brucefeiler.com

LIFE IS IN THE TRANSITIONS

Bruce Feiler

Mastering Change at Any Age

A pioneering and timely study of how to navigate life's biggest transitions with meaning, purpose, and skill.
Bruce Feiler, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Secrets of Happy Families and Council of Dads, has long explored the stories that give our lives meaning. Galvanized by a personal crisis, he spent the last few years crisscrossing the country, collecting hundreds of life stories in all fifty states from Americans who'd been through major life changes--from losing jobs to losing loved ones; from changing careers to changing relationships; from getting sober to getting healthy to simply looking for a fresh start. He then spent a year coding these stories, identifying patterns and takeaways that can help all of us survive and thrive in times of change.

What Feiler discovered was a world in which transitions are becoming more plentiful and mastering the skills to manage them is more urgent for all of us. The idea that we'll have one job, one relationship, one source of happiness is hopelessly outdated. We all feel unnerved by this upheaval. We're concerned that our lives are not what we expected, that we've veered off course, living life out of order. But we're not alone.

Life Is in the Transitions introduces the fresh, illuminating vision of the nonlinear life, in which each of us faces dozens of disruptors. One in ten of those becomes what Feiler calls a lifequake, a massive change that leads to a life transition. The average length of these transitions is five years. The upshot: We all spend half our lives in this unsettled state. You or someone you know is going through one now.

The most exciting thing Feiler identified is a powerful new tool kit for navigating these pivotal times. Drawing on his extraordinary trove of insights, he lays out specific strategies each of us can use to reimagine and rebuild our lives, often stronger than before.

From a master storyteller with an essential message, Life Is in the Transitions can move readers of any age to think deeply about times of change and how to transform them into periods of creativity and growth.

Bruce Feiler is the author of six consecutive New York Times bestsellers, including The Secrets of Happy Families, The Council of Dads, and Walking the Bible. He's the writer/presenter of two primetime series on PBS, and his two TED Talks have been viewed more than two million times. A native of Savannah, Georgia, Bruce lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Linda Rottenberg, and their twin daughters.
Available products
Book

Published 2020-07-14 by Penguin Press

Comments

[Feiler] offers in this insightful work timely suggestions for anyone adapting to significant life changes... He also presents evidence discrediting the notion of the midlife crisis and demonstrates that everyone's life contains multiple significant 'upheavals and uncertainties,' which should thus be accepted as normal, contrary to conventional wisdom. The findings buttress practical suggestions for responding to major change, including identifying emotions, giving up old mindsets, testing alternatives, and seeking help from others. This logical, persuasive resource will resonate with any self-help reader.

Crammed with cutting-edge research and compelling real-world examples, Life Is in the Transitions provides a framework of striking originality that explodes with thought-provoking insights. It has profound implications for how we view and handle the transitions - voluntary and involuntary - that increasingly disrupt our lives. And it's one of the rare books that is a pleasure to read in the moment and impossible to forget once you've finished the last page.

One of those books that's so profoundly aligned with the zeitgeist that you end up underlining the whole book... Bruce Feiler is the perfect person to lead us on this journey.

This highly recommended title couldn't be more timely... Feiler details a model for life transitions based on thousands of interviews with people from all walks of life and tells readers how to memorialize changes and give up old mind-sets. A helpful bonus is the complete outline for writing one's own story or that of others.

An engaging consideration of how people navigate the highs and lows in their lives... [Feiler's] relaxed, informal style is reassuring, and the numerous anecdotes gleaned from his wide variety of interview subjects keep the narrative fresh. His encouraging counsel will appeal to many.

This is a remarkably poignant read about the pivotal moments in our lives. Bruce Feiler gets to the heart of how turning points shape us - and how we can shape them. The wisdom and stories in this book will change the way you tell your own story.