On Consolation

“In an age when we are so much in need of solace, Michael Ignatieff went looking for it in texts and times whose assumptions are profoundly different from our own. The result is a secular reinterpretation of a landscape that has often seemed visible only through a religious lens: it is elegant, humane and intensely rewarding.”
—Kwame Anthony Appiah, author of The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity

"It is at once illuminating, moving and itself consoling, to follow Michael Ignatieff as he searches for moments of consolation across the centuries. More often than not, he finds these moments not where one would most expect them but in surprising places—in the failure of Cicero’s stoicism; in Marcus Aurelius’ sleepless nights, in Boethius’ odd flash of bleak comedy, in the illusory dreams of Karl and Jenny Marx. And with resolute honesty Ignatieff follows the search into his own inner life, grappling, as we all must do, with failure, loss, and death."
—Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

"A wonderful balance of literary survey and personal reflection, this book is wide-ranging, moving, and stylishly written. It makes the perfect introduction to a genre that never goes out of fashion."
—Sarah Bakewell, author of How to Live and At the Existentialist Café

"An extraordinary meditation on loss and mortality, drawing on all of Michael Ignatieff’s powers as a philosopher, a historian, a politician, and a man. His portraits of figures such as Hume and Montaigne are sharp and dignified, troubling and consoling, thoughtful and deeply humane."
—Rory Stewart, author of The Places in Between

“This is an extraordinarily moving book. The idea of solidarity in time is itself consoling, amidst so much loss: in Ignatieff’s words, ‘we are not alone, and we never have been.’”
—Emma Rothschild, author of The Inner Life of Empires

“Michael Ignatieff's eloquent search for consolation is itself consoling. His confidence in old wisdoms suits our new circumstances. This is a book splendidly immune to the panics of our age, written in an affecting spirit of humility by a man of uncommon intelligence who has a rare gift for keeping his head. For many of its readers On Consolation will be—is there any higher praise for a study of this subject?—useful.”
—Leon Wieseltier, author of Kaddish

“Illuminating and moving, these wide-ranging portraits of men and women seeking answers in dark times—from the Book of Job to Montaigne, from Cicero to Akhmatova, and on to today's palliative care—appeal to us all, as a universal quest and an intimate personal testament.”
—Jenny Uglow, author of Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense

“A passionate, thought-provoking, unpredictable book.”
—Carlo Ginzburg, author of Threads and Traces

"Human problems are like crystals: they have so many faces that they must be turned over and around many times in order to see every side. Michael Ignatieff’s ruminative On Consolation does that artfully. Reading his memorable portraits of historical figures who needed, sought, lost, or found consolation leaves the reader with a deeper appreciation of the profound challenges and possibilities that life lays before every one of us.”
—Mark Lilla, author of The Reckless Mind