On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times

The book "On Consolation" explores how writers, composers, and artists have sought solace in times of loss, tragedy, and crisis, from the ancient religious texts to the present. It contends that we can revive these traditions to meet the anguish and uncertainties of the twenty-first century.

Format: Hardback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 20 January 2022
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

This erudite and heartfelt survey reminds us that the need for consolation is timeless, as are the inspiring words and examples of those who walked this path before us.

- Toronto Star

As read on BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week, a timely, moving, and profound exploration of how writers, composers, and artists have searched for solace while facing loss, tragedy, and crisis, from the historian and Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist Michael Ignatieff.

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 portraits of writers, artists, and musicians searching for consolation – from the books of Job and Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, and Primo Levi – writer and historian Michael Ignatieff shows how men and women in extremity have looked to each other across time to recover hope and resilience. Recreating the moments when great figures found the courage to confront their fate and the determination to continue unafraid, On Consolation takes those stories into the present, movingly contending that we can revive these traditions of consolation to meet the anguish and uncertainties of the twenty-first century.

Weight: 416g
Dimension: 144 x 224 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781529053777