The Half Known Life

In Search of Paradise

By: Pico Iyer

Narrated by: Pico Iyer

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2023 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE NEW YORKER, NPR, TIME MAGAZINE & MORE

“Masterful . . . A book of inner journeys told through extraordinary exteriors . . . One of his very best.” —Washington Post

“Dazzling.” —Time Magazine, Best Books of 2023

From “one of the most soulful and perceptive writers of our time” (Brain Pickings): a journey through competing ideas of paradise to see how we can live more peacefully in an ever more divided and distracted world.

Paradise: that elusive place where the anxieties, struggles, and burdens of life fall away. Most of us dream of it, but each of us has very different ideas about where it is to be found. For some it can be enjoyed only after death; for others, it’s in our midst—or just across the ocean—if only we can find eyes to see it.

Traveling from Iran to North Korea, from the Dalai Lama’s Himalayas to the ghostly temples of Japan, Pico Iyer brings together a lifetime of explorations to upend our ideas of utopia and ask how we might find peace in the midst of difficulty and suffering. Does religion lead us back to Eden or only into constant contention? Why do so many seeming paradises turn into warzones? And does paradise exist only in the afterworld – or can it be found in the here and now?

For almost fifty years Iyer has been roaming the world, mixing a global soul’s delight in observing cultures with a pilgrim’s readiness to be transformed. In this culminating work, he brings together the outer world and the inner to offer us a surprising, original, often beautiful exploration of how we might come upon paradise in the midst of our very real lives.

Beautiful

I loved this book so much!! There were definitely some slow parts and so think maybe part of it was the narration, but this book was gorgeous. I loved all the descriptions and the premise. One of my favorites I’ve listened to this year.

Worth it.

I throughly enjoyed this thought provoking journey. I heard an interview with the author on NPR and was not disappointed.

Fantastic Book

Beautifully written and read. Like taking a trip around the world with a wise spiritual guide.

Beautiful and smart

The author is an excellent reader, and his observations stay with me. He mixes it up: sharp and gentle.

It is a Fantastic Book

Pico does excellent job in showing us beauty of everyday life. His narration moves vertically in time horizontally in locations. No matter where he is Pico is “at home” and we as readers become immersed in his world. He is truly global citizen showing us that personal experience is most valuable.

Zeljko Zic