On Consolation

Finding Solace in Dark Times

By: Michael Ignatieff

Narrated by: Michael Ignatieff

Timely and profound meditations on how great figures in history, literature, music, and art searched for solace while facing tragedies and crises, from the internationally renowned historian of ideas and Booker Prize finalist 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 16th 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 lapidary meditations on writers, artists, musicians, and their works - from the books of Job and Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova, and Primo Levi - esteemed 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 our precarious 21st century.

A Macmillan Audio production from Metropolitan Books

©2021 Michael Ignatieff (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

A unique book. A must read for anybody with a beating heart and a conscience

Nothing like it. As a social scientist I read to little of the humanities. This is a fantastic way to connect
to the many bright minds that over millennia have had to struggle with the death, the meaning of life and the scope for consolation. I cannot praise it enough.

Remarkable is every way. A must for the mental..

This book is a masterpiece that ignites a path forward when the mind has faded into darkness and despair. On Consolation poetically illuminates glimpses of clarity in times when sorrow overwhelms and there is no understanding. It is the perfect read to help cope with death and loss.

The reader’s voice in this audiobook is penetrating and resolute.

Beautiful and moving. Unforgettable experience.

Michael’s knowledge is impressive and his reading heartfelt. It’s a book that will remain within my consciousness forever. He has made a real contribution to this important subject and I thank him for it. It was the right time for me to “read” it and perhaps in the future read again. Highly recommend.