The Second Story: Hazelwood Press

"...thoughtful, beautifully written, and deeply relatable. Essential reading for everyone over 40." -Steven Petrow, Washington Post columnist, author of The Joy You Make

"Caudron has written the book many people need but few have the courage to write." --Chip Conley, founder of Modern Elder Academy, author of Learning to Love Midlife

For fans of Lori Gottlieb's Maybe You Should Talk to Someone and Katherine May's Wintering, a candid psychologically probing memoir about a lifelong achiever who is forced to confront-and begin to rewrite-the internal script that has driven her pursuits.

If you've ever woken up in the middle of the night and wondered, "Is this all there is?"-you're not alone.

At sixty-one, Shari Caudron has everything she's worked for: a meaningful career, a loving marriage, a home in the foothills of Colorado. But beneath the surface, something is missing. The harder she tries to fill the void, the further she drifts from herself. When a personal growth workshop cracks something open, she can no longer outrun the truth: the life she spent decades creating no longer feels like her own.

The Second Story is an honest, often wry account of what happens when the strategies that once helped us succeed-proving, pleasing, performing-stop working. What begins as a search for how to age well becomes a deeper exploration of how to live well.

More than a midlife memoir, The Second Story is a companion for anyone who has ever felt lost inside a life that looks fine from the outside. It's a story about letting go of the narratives that shaped us so we can finally stop striving and start living.