The Antidote

Is our search for happiness futile?

Or are we just going about it the wrong way?

What if ‘positive thinking’ and relentless optimism aren’t the solution to the happiness dilemma, but part of the problem?

Is our search for happiness futile? Or are we just going about it the wrong way?

Oliver Burkeman turns decades of self-help advice on its head and paradoxically forces us to rethink our attitudes towards failure, uncertainty and death. It's our constant efforts to avoid negative thinking that cause us to feel anxious, insecure and unhappy. What if happiness can be found embracing the things we spend our lives trying to escape? Wise, practical and funny, The Antidote is a thought-provoking, counter-intuitive and ultimately uplifting read, celebrating the power of negative thinking.

'Burkeman has written some of the most truthful and useful words on happiness to be published in recent years' Guardian