'' Illuminating, beautiful . . . This is a special book, full of little epiphanies '' Natasha Lunn, author of Conversations on Love The Examined Life , the bestselling debut from psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz, was about learning how to live; his new book, Love''s Labour , is about learning how to love When it comes to love why do we find things so difficult? Drawing on over forty years of candid and surprising conversations with his patients, Stephen Grosz asks, what gets in the way of our falling in love? And what must we do to stay there? In the intimate space of the consulting room, we meet the woman who can''t post her wedding invitations but then, decades later, can''t decide whether to get divorced; the friendship group that explodes when an adulterous affair begins; and the man whose partner''s death is almost too much to bear. As an analyst, Grosz''s unerring ability is to locate what ails the heartsick. As a writer, he elegantly shows how we can deploy the agonies of love as tools for understanding. The labour of love is the work of a lifetime but in finally learning to see ourselves and our world clearly, we find we are truly ready to love one another. ''You will be better at love after you read this book '' Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon Praise for The Examined Life : ''Grosz''s vignettes are so brilliantly put together that they read like pieces of bare, illuminating fiction. . . . It is this combination of tenacious detective work, remarkable compassion and sheer, unending curiosity for the oddities of the human heart that makes these stories utterly captivating'' Sunday Times ''Writing with sympathy and insight, Grosz distils years of work into a series of slim, piercing chapters that read like a combination of Chekhov and Oliver Sacks'' New York Times ''I was enthralled . . . profound and moving, large ideas packed into a slim volume'' Observer ...

Autorentext

Stephen Grosz is a practicing psychoanalyst - he has worked with patients for more than forty years. Born in America, he was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Oxford University, and now lives in London. His Number One Sunday Times bestseller, The Examined Life, **has been translated into more than thirty languages.

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'The poet laureate of human emotion' ELIZABETH DAY
'Left me feeling wiser and more open to life' OLIVER BURKEMAN
'A work of genius' INDIA KNIGHT

Change the way you think about love.

When it comes to relationships, why do we find things so difficult? Drawing on more than forty years of candid and surprising conversations with his patients, psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz shows us how we can be better at love.

In the intimate space of the consulting room, we meet the woman who can't post her wedding invitations but then, decades later, can't decide whether to get divorced; the ex-nun whose unconscious fear of pregnancy drove her into the convent; and the friendship group that explodes when an adulterous affair begins. Compelling, revealing and full of wisdom, Love's Labour shows us that only when we see ourselves and our world clearly are we truly ready to love one another.

'Powerful and compelling' GUARDIAN
'This is a beautiful book' NIGELLA LAWSON
'This man could save your marriage' SUNDAY TIMES