Can’t Even

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

An incendiary personal and cultural investigation of burnout

Are you tired, stressed and trying your best but somehow still not doing enough? Has the bottom half of your To Do list been locked in place for months? Is everything becoming work as your job seeps into your evenings, you monetise your hobbies and perform your leisure time on social media?

This is burnout - what increasingly like the defining feature of our lives. We are exhausted. But burnout is not a personal failing. It is a creeping part of modern culture, shaped by deep-rooted political, historical and economic forces, and it is affecting how we work, parent, socialise and inhabit the world.

Anne Helen Petersen identifies burnout with moving clarity - what it feels like and how it manifests across communities. Through her own experience, original interviews and detailed analysis, she traces the institutional and generational causes of burnout. And, in doing so, she helps us to let go of our guilt and imagine a possible future.

Reassuring, insightful and galvanising, Can't Even is essential reading for all of us.

© Anne Helen 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Critics Review

  • Meticulously researched… astutely observed… extremely enlightening

    Guardian

  • Urgent and insightful book… Read this and get a much-needed perspective

    Stylist

  • An intelligent and well-researched analysis… To those born into the same generation, its truth is searing

    Sunday Times

  • A readable, well-researched guide to a generation

    The Times, *Book of the Week*

  • Relevant to everyone living under capitalism

    New Statesman

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