One of our most perceptive travel writers embarks on an exploration of the world's holiest places and where we might find paradise on Earth.
Pico Iyer is the author of fifteen books, translated into twenty-three languages. He has been a contributor for more than thirty years to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Time and Harper’s Magazine, and has written for many more publications worldwide, including the New York Review of Books, Granta and the Financial Times. His four recent talks for TED have received more than ten million views. www.picoiyerjourneys.com
A luminous and absorbing book, and one that is good to think
with
*Financial Times*
Nothing less than a guided tour of the human soul. Filled with
hope, wisdom, and extraordinary tenderness, this is a book not only
for the ages, but for our very specific, very troubled age. A
masterpiece.
*Elizabeth Gilbert*
In elegant and ecstatic prose, Pico Iyer uncovers our wonderful
capacity for hope, wearing his erudition so lightly. I was
revitalised by this book
*Katherine May*
Iyer shares Graham Greene’s gift for the enthralling sentence, and
can be a charming and perceptive companion . . . He reminds us that
the key to good travel writing lies in the discrepancy between what
you expect of a country and what you get. And at an even more
primal level, he makes you want to go to the countries
themselves
*Spectator*
To step into The Half Known Life feels both a privilege and a
necessity . . . Iyer is more than a guide or a compatriot in an
unfamiliar land: in the inward journey to lucidity he is a
companion of our own searching minds
*Yiyun Li*
I defy anyone to read this profound travelogue and not immediately
start reading it again. If there is a "paradise of words", this is
it
*John Keay*
A wise, immaculately written achievement that could only be
contemplated after a lifetime of travel and reading and pondering.
Reading The Half Known Life is to yield to the most invigorating
and thought-provoking meditation.
*Nicholas Shakespeare*
Thoughtful . . . Iyer comes across as that finest of all
personality types, the pragmatic idealist ... There’s a lovely
patience in evidence here; he is calm, reasonable and curious
*Irish Independent*
Iyer has done the impossible with this book . . . This is a
singular offering of magnetic story, deep thinking, truth telling
and spiritual refreshment for our tumultuous young century
*Krista Tippett*
I really really enjoyed the book
*Frank Cottrell Boyce*
Even as Iyer takes you around the world, he remains a most faithful
companion to the spirit of that ultimate journey into uncharted
territories—our inner selves . . . The Half Known Life is a
vigorous quest for the paradise within
*Los Angeles Review of Books*
Iyer's chronicle, which begins with an appreciation of the
sophistication, beauty and culture of Iran, becomes a requiem for a
world — and an existence — estranged from itself . . . His book has
the ring of a classic Buddhist meditation strategy
*New York Times*
Thought-provoking . . . Iyer has an acutely observant eye for the
telling detail and a delicious turn of phrase
*Country and Town House Magazine*
Reading Mr Iyer’s book in the depth of winter, in a troubled world,
it’s heartening to think that paradise—or at least a glimpse of
it—might be available from where we sit
*Wall Street Journal*
A masterful merging of Iyer’s past and current concerns, a book of
inner journeys told through extraordinary exteriors
*Washington Post*
Iyer’s prose is elegant and never hurried as it roams like a
travelling mind . . . He comes to his destinations with years of
learned erudition and yet seemingly without expectations . . . It
may be Iyer’s unique positioning that makes The Half Known Life so
much of this moment, in a world reeling from a devastating pandemic
as well as lasting divisons
*Japan Times*
Humming with wisdom and a profound appreciation of nature’s
inherent contradictions, Pico Iyer’s meditation on paradise—where
it is, what it means, if it can be found on Earth—is much more than
a diary of his country-spanning travels. It’s a work of philosophy,
probing the scientific and the spiritual to understand why the most
beautiful places often become such sources of pain, and how
paradise might be re-discovered
*Elle US*
Iyer’s smooth, intelligent yet elegant prose style makes this an
enjoyable and often thought-provoking read
*New York Journal of Books*
Everywhere Pico Iyer travels his keen vision allows him to see both
ravishing beauty and profound flaws
*Shelf Awareness*
From one of the most perceptive writers of our times, this one
brings forth a lifetime of explorations to upend our ideas of
utopia and ask how we might find peace in the midst of difficulty
and suffering. Could there be anything better to pick at the start
of the year?
*Harper’s Bazaar India*
Iyer flexes his remarkable skill of reading between the lines of
passing conversations to extract profound meaning and draw
connections between disparate places across the world . . . He does
provide hours of thought-provoking meditations on what it means to
speak of paradise
*New York Times*
Mesmering . . . riveting . . . revelatory . . . Iyer poetically
depicts the otherworldly beauty of these places while trenchantly
examining the paradox of utopia
*NPR*
Iyer is the loveliest of writers, a person whose prose is in
harmony with the man himself: sharp-minded, witty, benevolent,
wise, and never for a second ponderous or spiritually meretricious.
To read Iyer, initially, is to entertain ourselves, and then, well,
the rest is up to you
*Air Mail*
Iyer travels the globe—from Iran to Kashmir to Japan to Northern
Ireland—to demystify how different communities perceive eternal
happiness, and how their quest to achieve it manifests in the face
of political, social, and environmental instability. The result is
a lyrical, if paradoxical, meditation on a fervent pursuit for
happiness that often feels out of reach
*TIME, The 100 Must-Read Books of 2023*
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