Green Tree signs 'major' new work on happiness

Bloomsbury imprint Green Tree has sign a "major" new work from journalist Jonathan Rauch.

Charlotte Croft, publisher of Green Tree, acquired UK rights through Abbie Greaves at Curtis Brown on behalf of Rafe Sagalyn at ICM/Sagalyn for Rauch's The Happiness Curve: Why Life Gets Better After Midlife.

In this "revelatory" book, and drawing on cutting-edge research, journalist Jonathan Rauch shows that from our 20s into our 40s, happiness follows a U-shaped trajectory, a “happiness curve”, declining from the optimism of youth into what’s often a long, low trough in the middle age, before starting to rise again in our 50s. Rauch explains "why happiness gets harder" in your 40s, regardless of gender, race, class or nationality, and also answers "urgent" questions including why one could feel in a slump even though successful, where this malaise comes from, and will it ever end?

Croft said: “We are delighted to be publishing Jonathan Rauch's fascinating and important book. There is so much hope and positivity in Jonathan's research, revealing that our middle years are not a time of midlife 'crisis' at all - but a period of reflection and regrouping for the years ahead. Uplifting news for us all!”

Rauch is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. He has also written for the New Republic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, among many other publications. He lives with his husband in Washington, DC.

Rauch said: “It is a particular privilege to work with Bloomsbury to bring groundbreaking recent research to readers in the U.K. and Europe. The Happiness Curve explores breakthrough science that can help us find more satisfaction in our lives and turn aging to our emotional advantage, while helping others do the same--goals whose importance are not just personal but global, as International Happiness Day reminds us.”

Green Tree will publish The Happiness Curve on the 14th June 2018 in hardback.