Why Won’t You Apol­o­gize? by best­selling author Har­ri­et Lern­er shows us how much the apol­o­gy mat­ters and why we so often muck it up. ​“I’m sor­ry” are the two most pow­er­ful words in the Eng­lish lan­guage. When these words are part of a heart­felt apol­o­gy they are the great­est gift that we can give to the hurt par­ty to the rela­tion­ship and to our­selves. Yet the com­pli­cat­ed dance between the offend­er and the offend­ed often goes bad­ly. In com­pelling sto­ries from her per­son­al life and clin­i­cal work, she also address­es the pain of the hurt par­ty who has received an emp­ty apol­o­gy or none at all — and she turns con­ven­tion­al wis­dom about for­give­ness on its head. Whether the issue is as triv­ial as shop­ping for bananas or as seri­ous as betray­ing a friend or fam­i­ly mem­ber, Lern­er pro­vides a unique per­spec­tive on what a heart­felt apol­o­gy requires and how we can restore com­pro­mised and bro­ken rela­tion­ships. The courage to apol­o­gize and the wis­dom and clar­i­ty to do it well is at the heart of effec­tive lead­er­ship, mar­riage, par­ent­ing, friend­ship, and per­son­al integri­ty. Why Won’t You Apol­o­gize? is a wit­ty and san­i­ty-sav­ing guide to set­ting things right.