For decades now, Adam Gopnik has been one of our most beloved writers, a brilliantly perceptive critic of art, food, France, and more. But recently, he became obsessed by a more fundamental matter: How do masters learn their miraculous skill, whether it is drawing a museum-ready nude or baking a perfect sourdough loaf? In The Real Work-the term magicians use for the accumulated craft that makes for a great trick-Gopnik becomes a dedicated student of several masters of their craft: a classical painter, a boxer, a dancing instructor, a driving instructor, and others. Rejecting self-help bromides and bullet points, he nevertheless shows that the top people in any field share a set of common qualities and methods. Spirited and profound, The Real Work will help you understand how mastery can happen in your own life-and, significantly, why each of us relentlessly seeks to better ourselves in the first place.