Kepler’s is beyond pleased to welcome back Pico Iyer—traveler, author, essayist, and above all, curious, soulful explorer. He’s roamed the world for half a century, asking the deepest of existential questions, and listening to the answers with his whole heart. His new book, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, is the culmination of a life’s work. It’s a fresh, intimate guided tour of the human soul, featuring vivid reportage from his encounters with North Korean locals, dissidents in Iran, and monks in the Himalayas. He details journeys to the embattled buddhas of Sri Lanka, mountain temples in Japan, and the banks of the Ganges. Iyer weaves together these disparate cultural encounters to find what might bring humankind together in this age of intensifying anger and division.
Krista Tippett says, “Pico 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.” Religious historian and bestselling author Dr. Elaine Pagels applauds: “In this brilliantly told Buddhist parable, Pico Iyer takes the reader from London to Santa Barbara, Jerusalem to Sri Lanka, Japan’s Bridge of Heaven to Varanasi, exploring the insatiable human longing for Paradise while acutely observing—with irony, wit, and empathy—the paradoxes inherent in actual experience.”
Join us for a very special conversation of inquiry and hope for the New Year, as Pico Iyer sits down with Heyday publisher Steve Wasserman.
Photo by Derek Shapton