We had several motivations for writing the book:

   (i) The first was personal. We have seen and experienced too many broken relationships around us, as have many others. The question is with us: Should and could they be repaired?

  (ii) The second one was very global. Many people now agree that something went wrong in the world. Food waste and hunger, cheap clothing for the rich manufactured in conditions close to slavery in another part of the world, climate crisis, and social inequality. More frequent natural and social disasters. (Surprisingly, our initial motivation was neither COVID-19 nor war. We started to chat about the book before the pandemic began and worked on its last part as foreign soldiers invaded Ukraine).

  (iii) As children, we lived in a poor country, where “repair culture” was the social norm.

What is this book about?

   People have many types of resources. Objects (such as our cell phones and laptops), close and more distant individuals (like family members, colleagues, and even accidental acquaintances), communities, and global resources (including air and ocean waters). What will we do if the resources are impaired? The unintended consequence of economic and technological development was the emergence of a society centered around disposable products, with further implications related to the environmental crisis. We had an Aha momentm, when we realized: the central core of the book should emphasize that repair is a general resource management strategy. Repair provides people with many positive opportunities to live happier lives.

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