bell hooks sees love as an essential component of human life. She describes her personal history with love, starting from her childhood. Early in her life, hooks was looked upon “with loving kindness, cherished and made to feel wanted on this earth and in my home” (ix). This love did not last, however, and its sudden absence left a lasting impression on her; the lovelessness that hooks endured early in life left her with “a feeling of brokenheartedness so profound I was spellbound” (ix). For years, hooks suffered at the hands of lovelessness, unable to heal from her trauma and experience the genuine love she received only briefly in childhood. Now, many years later, hooks acknowledges that “while we can never go back…we can go forward” (x). hooks asserts that anyone, no matter who they are or what they have experienced, has the capacity to know love. She expresses a deep concern for the lovelessness of modern society and the general public’s unwillingness to be open to love. In writing this book, hooks calls for a “return to love” (xi).