On Consolation

Resumen del libro

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. '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 StarWhen 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.

Biografía del autor

x{0026}lt;P x{0026}lt;B Michael Ignatieffx{0026}lt;/B (Toronto, 1947) es ensayista, académico y expolítico. Fue el líder del Partido Liberal de Canadá y de la oposición desde 2008 hasta 2011. Conocido por su obra como historiador, ha ocupado puestos académicos en las universidades de Toronto, Cambridge, Oxford y Harvard. Es rector y presidente de la Central European University de Budapest y fue catedrático de la Harvard Kennedy School. Entre sus libros cabe destacar x{0026}lt;I Isaiah Berlin. Su vida x{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 1999; 2018), x{0026}lt;I El honordel guerrero: guerra étnica y concincia modernax{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 2003; 2024) x{0026}lt;I El mal menor: ética política en una era de terrorx{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 2005; 2018), x{0026}lt;I Fuego y cenizasx{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 2014; 2023), x{0026}lt;I Las virtudes cotidianasx{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 2018) y x{0026}lt;I En busca de consuelox{0026}lt;/I (Taurus, 2023). Ha sido galardonado con el Premio Princesa de Asturias de Ciencias Sociales 2024.x{0026}lt;/P