About this item
When we lose someone we love, when we suffer loss or defeat, when catastrophe strikes -- war, famine, pandemic -- we go in search of consolation. Once the province of priests and philosophers, the language of consolation has largely vanished from our modern vocabulary, and the places where it was offered, houses of religion, are often empty. Rejecting the solace of ancient religious texts, humanity since the sixteenth century has increasingly placed its faith in science, ideology, and the therapeutic.How do we console each other and ourselves in an age of unbelief? In a series of lapidary meditations on writers, artists, musicians, and their works -- from the books of Job and Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, and Primo Levi -- esteemed writer and historian Michael Ignatieff shows how men and women in extremity have looked to each other across time to recover hope and resilience.
About the Author
Writer, historian, professor and politician, Michael Ignatieff was born in Canada, educated at the University of Toronto and Harvard and now lives and works in Vienna, Austria where he is a professor of history at Central European University. He is married to Zsuzsanna Zsohar and has two children. He has written biography, reportage, history, philosophy and his books have been published in many languages. His recurrent themes are the fate of human rights and liberal values in a time of convulsive change. His novel--Scar Tissue-- was nominated for the Booker Prize and his defense of academic freedom and liberal principles earned him the Dan David Prize in 2019.
