How Good Do We Have to Be?: A New Understanding of Guilt and Forgiveness

This inspiring bestseller, which has already touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of readers since its publication in hardcover last fall, is a book that puts human shortcomings in perspective -- and explains how we can better love ourselves and others.

No one is perfect. Yet many people measure themselves and others against impossibly high standards. The result: guilt, anger, depression, and disappointment.

How Good Do We Have to Be? is a book for everyone who has experienced these feelings. Harold Kushner writes with his customary generosity and wisdom as he reveals why we need not fear the loss of God's love when we make mistakes. Drawing on the Bible, modern literature, psychology, theology, and his own thirty years as a congregational rabbi, Kushner shows how acceptance and forgiveness can change our relationships with the most important people in our lives and help us meet the challenge of being human.