The Second Mountain

The Quest for a Moral Life

By: David Brooks

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Secnd Mountain, written by David Brooks, read by Arthur Morey.

Are you on your first or second mountain?
Is life about you - or others?
About success - or something deeper?

The world tells us that we should pursue our self-interest: career wins, high status, nice things. These are the goals of our first mountain. But at some point in our lives we might find that we're not interested in what other people tell us to want. We want the things that are truly worth wanting.

This is the second mountain.

What does it mean to look beyond yourself and find a moral cause? To forget about independence and discover dependence - to be utterly enmeshed in a web of warm relationships? What does it mean to value intimacy, devotion, responsibility and commitment above individual freedom? In The Second Mountain David Brooks explores the meaning and possibilities that scaling a second mountain offer us, and the four commitments that most commonly move us there: family, vocation, philosophy and community. Inspiring, personal and full of joy, this book will help you discover why you were really put on this earth.

Critic reviews

Potentially life-changing lessons can be found in this relevant and thought-provoking book.

Brooks's best book yet ... Powerful ... His stirring new book is a self-help guide to escaping the prison of self. (Oliver Burkeman)

Enormously comforting and galvanising ... a better way to live

Across more than 300 pages of heartfelt prose, Brooks reworks [the meaning of life] into a neat story . . . Brooks' willingness to be "a little vulnerable" results in a refreshing honest confession . . . There's no top-of-the-mountain moment . . . just a friendly, gentle nudging toward the conclusion that real joy lies in moral commitment.

The book overall, candid about the reality of stress and failure in the author's life, has earned the right to put forward with equal candour the experience of finding, or being found by, faith. (Rowan Williams)

Profound and deeply moving read

I will be listening to this again and again. It truly spoke to my heart, so beautifully written. Thankyou thankyou 🙏

Catchy title to hook you into the unrelated content

Masquerading as a self help book about second careers / mid life crisis… this quickly turns into one man’s personal ramblings about faith and religion. The book starts off strong , but to reach the decent concluding Chapter, one has to endure a collection of pseudo intellectual diatribes, anecdotal observations and random thoughts with no clear throughline except for the author’s self indulgence.