An entertaining and insightful exploration of schadenfreude: the deliciously dark and organic pleasure we’ve all felt, from time to time, at news of others’ misfortunes.

You may feel schadenfreude when…

the boss calls himself ‘Mind of Pubic Providers’ on a significant letter.an awesome guy swings back about his seat, and it tips over.a Celebrity Vegan is caught in the cheese aisle. an intense driver slashes you off – and gets pulled over.your co-worker gets hotter fish in the microwave, then gets about Schadenfreude: The Joy of Another’s Misfortune meals poisoning.an metropolitan unicyclist almost collides using a parked car.someone cuts the line for the ATM – and it swallows their credit card.your effortlessly attractive friend gets dumped.

We all know the pleasure felt at someone else’s misfortune. The Germans named this furtive delight in another’s failing schadenfreude (from schaden harm, and freude, joy), and it has perplexed philosophers and psychologists for years and years. Why can it be therefore satisfying to see another’s problems? And what, if anything, should we do about it?

Schadenfreude illuminates this hidden feelings, inviting visitors to reflect on its pleasures, and how exactly we use other people’s miseries to feel better about ourselves. Written within an exploratory, evocative form, it weaves good examples from literature, school of thought, film, and music as well as personal observation and historic and cultural analysis. And in today’s world of polarized politics, tweets trolls and ‘sidebars of pity,’ it couldn’t become timelier.

Engaging, insightful, and engaging, Schadenfreude makes the case for thinking afresh about the function this much-maligned emotion plays in our lives — maybe even embracing it.