The essential guide to mental health from the bestselling author of The School of Life

This is a book about getting unwell. About losing direction and hope. About imagining that we have let ourselves and everyone down.

But it is also a book about getting better. About regaining the thread, rediscovering meaning and finding a way back to connection and joy.

Here, Alain de Botton follows the arc of a mental health journey, from crisis to recuperation; the moments we realize we cannot cope; the acts of selfcare or therapy in which we find respite; and the days we finally reclaim a sense of stability. Written with understanding and kindness, it is both a source of companionship in our loneliest moments - whether it's a relationship breakdown, a career setback or anxiety around the everyday - and a practical guide that will help us find reasons for hope.

We are all on our own journey towards recovery. This book is for anyone ready to understand theirs.

'Alain de Botton is a brave and highly intelligent writer' Observer

'One of our most consistently illuminating writers on contemporary culture' John Gray, New Statesman