A truly original book in every aspect, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows poetically defines emotions that we all feel but lack the words to express, until now—from the creator of the popular online project of the same name.

Have you ever wondered about the lives of every person you pass on the street, realizing that each is the main character in their own story, living a life as vivid and complex as your own? That feeling has a name: “sonder.” Or perhaps you’ve watched a storm and felt a primal hunger for disaster, hoping it would disrupt your life. That's called “lachesism.” Or you’ve looked at old photographs and felt a nostalgia for a time you've never actually experienced. That’s "anemoia."

If you haven't heard these terms before, it's because they didn’t exist until John Koenig embarked on his epic quest to fill the gaps in the language of emotions. Born as a website in 2009, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows has garnered widespread critical acclaim, inspired TED talks, album titles, cocktails, and even tattoos. John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars, says that The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows “creates beautiful new words we need but do not yet have.”

With varied, moving, funny, and meaningful definitions, the etymologies are richly imaginative and draw on languages from all over the world, interspersed with otherworldly collages and lyrical essays that explore forgotten corners of the human condition—from “astrophe,” the desire to explore beyond planet Earth, to “zenosyne,” the sense that time is constantly accelerating.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is for anyone who enjoys a shift in perspective, contemplating the uncontrollable emotions that compose our lives, which have much more in common than we think. With a beautiful package and gorgeously illustrated throughout, it’s the perfect gift for creatives, word lovers, and people everywhere.