The Author / Narrator (Sheryl Sandberg)

Sheryl Sandberg contemplates the process of developing and practicing resilience, particularly in the aftermath of a major upheaval, from a place of personal experience. The sudden and unexpected death of her husband propelled her, her family, and her friends into what she describes as a club to which no-one wants to belong – the club of the traumatized. Her considerations of resilience in the face of such experience developed, and are presented here, in response to what happened. Those responses, as she describes them, were initially negative and painful, but evolved into experiences much less so as a result of the theories and therapies, both formal and informal, that she learned about and began to practice, and which she writes about here.

A key component to the author’s identity that makes its presence felt in terms of both narrative and thematic content is...