FAULT LINES

Written with a powerful combination of healing passion and scientific rigor, FAULT LINES offer real solutions to a hidden epidemic: family estrangement.

As many know all too well, estrangement from a family member is one of the most painful life experiences. It is devastating not only to the individuals directly involved--collateral damage can extend upward, downward, and across generations, many millions of people around the world suffer such rifts, yet little guidance exists on how to cope with and overcome them. In this book, noted Cornell gerontologist Karl Pillemer combines the advice of people who have successfully reconciled with powerful insights from social science research. The result is a unique guide to mending fractured families. Fault Lines shares for the first time findings from Dr. Pillemer's ten-year groundbreaking Cornell Reconciliation Project, based on the first national survey on estrangement; rich, in-depth interviews with hundreds of people who have experienced it; and insights from leading family researchers and therapists. He assures people who are estranged, and those who care about them, that they are not alone and that fissures can be bridged. Through the wisdom of people who have "been there," Fault Lines shows how healing is possible through clear steps that people can use right away in their own families. It addresses such questions as: How do rifts begin? What makes estrangement so painful? Why is it so often triggered by a single event? Are you ready to reconcile? How can you overcome past hurts to build a new future with a relative?

Tackling a subject that is achingly familiar to almost everyone, especially in an era when powerful outside forces such as technology and mobility are lessening family cohesion, Dr. Pillemer combines dramatic stories, science-based guidance, and practical repair tools to help people find the path to reconciliation.

About the author:
Karl Pillemer, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized family sociologist. He is the Hazel Reed Professor of Human Development at Cornell University and also a Professor in the Weill Cornell Medical College. He is the Director of the Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research at Cornell, a major national center that works to strengthen family life and promote optimal human development. Throughout his career, the focus of Dr. Pillemer's research has been studying the family over the life course. This area of social science takes the long view and examines how people develop and change throughout their lives in family contexts. The life course perspective asks questions like: What effects do choices, opportunities, and circumstances early in families have on how our lives turn out? What leads some people to have happy and healthy family lives, while others struggle with serious problems? Why do some families thrive and support their members throughout life while others do not? Dr. Pillemer has spent much of his career focusing on the question: How can be best understand family life and how can we make it easier at every stage of life?

Dr. Pillemer has authored more than 150 scientific publications, is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, and has served in leadership roles in a number of scientific organizations. He speaks throughout the world on family issues and his work has been covered by major media outlets. Dr. Pillemer counts among his greatest accomplishments his work translating research findings to the general public. He is the author of the best-selling 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans (Hudson Street
Press/Penguin, 2011). and 30 Lessons for Loving: Advice from the Wisest Americans on Love, Relationships, and Marriage (Hudson Street Press/Penguin, 2015). Pillemer has also published a number of popular advice books for workers in the elder service field.