PICO IYER'S 'THE HALF KNOWN LIFE'

For nearly fifty years, Pico Iyer’s travels across the globe have—for better or worse—molded his view of humanity, cultivating both skepticism and admiration. 

“I’d begun to wonder what kind of paradise can ever be found in a world of unceasing conflict—and whether the very search for it might not simply aggravate our differences,” Iyer writes in his stunning new book, The Half Known Life: Finding Paradise in a Divided World. The essayist behind masterworks like Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells and The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere explores the meaning of paradise. Paradise, of course, is subjective—a theme winding through the pages with fascinating curiosity. Each word floods into the reader’s soul, unraveling as a delicate observation, lush with religions and cultures from Iran and North Korea to Japan and the Himalayas. Beautiful, inspiring, and insightful, The Half Known Life unfolds before us like a wondrous journey.

-Reader's Digest