An End to Suffering

Mishra’s book is in the best tradition of Buddhism, both dispassionate and deeply engaged, complicated and simple, erudite and profoundly humane * New York Times *Casual and impressive … Mishra’s prose has an unforced elegance – Michael Glover * Independent *One of our most intellectually astute and courageous writers – Hisham Matar, author of In the Country of Men and My FriendsMishra leads readers on a search for meaning in modern history’s most depraved episodes. This is a rare text: courageous and bracing, learned and ethical, rigorous and mind-expanding. – Naomi Klein, author of Doppelganger, on The World After GazaBrilliant – William Dalrymple, author of The Golden RoadMishra is one of the most important voices of our generation – Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk RoadsWe all owe Pankaj Mishra a debt for crafting eloquent, urgent, and undeniable words from the horrors we are struggling to witness – Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)Mishra evokes with perfectly modulated lyricism a world few of us have seen from within … He is the rare writer who is at ease as a historian, philosopher, traveller, and memoirist, and the combination of roles allows him to produce a book that few others could even have attempted – Pico Iyer * New York Review of Books *Mishra has the erudition and wit to rove far and wide intellectually. He is exact in his detail, circumspect in his generalisation. A formidable travelling companion in this unique and entertaining quest * Observer *A hugely timely study, interwoven with the Western “discovery” of Buddhism, a history of ancient India and Hinduism, excellent knowledge of many of the important philosophical thinkers, and Mishra’s own memoirs of India. It is perhaps in these personal accounts where Mishra is at his best, simply because of the sheer evocative power of his language, and the land and landscape he conjures up * Scotland on Sunday *Insightful, moving … also deeply, angrily, at times touchingly, a book about India today * Times Literary Supplement *

A mixture of memoir, history, political and philosophical treatise, An End to Suffering sets out to tell the story of the Buddha. Mishra leads us on his own journey from India, to Europe, to America, to the mountains of the Hindu Kush. Descartes, Schopenhauer and Hume jostle for attention, along with pensees on the rise of the nation state, the end of history and Islamic fundamentalism. It sounds analmighty mess. The extraordinary thing is that it works, and triumphantly

Pankaj Mishra’s books include The Romantics, which won the LA Times’ Art Seidenbaum Award for fiction, Age of Anger and From the Ruins of Empire. He contributes political and literary essays to the Guardian, the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books and the New Yorker. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he lives in London.