Sheryl Sandberg Is Writing a Book Titled ‘Option B’ About Resilience

Sheryl Sandberg is writing a new book, but it’s not about leaning in. This time, she’s touching on the deeply personal—grief.

Her husband, David Goldberg, passed away suddenly last year, leaving her to raise two young children. She opened up about the tremendous loss in a Facebook post shortly after his passing. “Even in these last few days of completely unexpected hell – the darkest and saddest moments of my life – I know how lucky I have been,” she wrote at the time.

Now, the Facebook COO has teamed up with Adam Grant, a Wharton professor and author, on a new project tentatively titled “Option B.” As reported by Recode, the book will speak to coping with loss and difficult circumstances, weaving in research with personal stories—including Sandberg’s own. The book has yet to have a publisher or release date.

Sandberg and Grant have worked together before, most recently on an op-ed in the New York Times on the “myth” of catty women in the workplace. They have previously co-authored other pieces for the Times on topics affecting women in the workplace, such the expectation for professional women to be “quiet.” Nell Scovell, who co-authored Lean In with Sandberg, reportedly edited “Option B.”

Sandberg has been open about her struggle to cope with her husband’s death. In her commencement address this year at University of California, Berkeley, she discussed what she learned from it. “I learned about the depths of sadness and the brutality of loss. But I also learned that when life sucks you under, you can kick against the bottom, break the surface, and breathe again,” she said.

The title is reportedly a reference to a piece of advice she received from a friend, which she mentioned in a post she wrote after sheloshim (a thirty-day mourning period traditional to the Jewish faith). She described discussing with a friend about filling in for a father-child activity since Dave had passed. “I cried to [my friend], ‘But I want Dave. I want option A.’ He put his arm around me and said, ‘Option A is not available. So let’s just kick the sh—t out of option B.’”