Preparing for Nothingness - by Alan Lightman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A profound and moving novel about life, death, and what might follow from the critically acclaimed author of Einstein's Dreams.

"I didn't have a happy life," Ludvig Bergsson's father told him shortly before his death. Haunted by these words, Ludvig grapples with his father's memory, charting the landscape of his eighty-seven-years. He had not seemed particularly discontent, but at some point, something must have shifted. Or, perhaps, it had been a slow and gradual decline. Had these been the words of a delirious and ailing man, or the truth as his father saw it?

Troubled by these unanswered questions, Ludvig suggests that his university's next annual symposium address one of life's greatest challenges: How might we prepare for its inevitable end? Each guest lecturer--an Argentinian psychologist, an astrophyscist, a troubled philosopher, a Christian theologian, a hospice worker, and a Buddhist monk--grapple with the question of what it means to live a good life, and how to make peace not only with death, but with what may or may not follow. As he listens to their presentations, Ludvig thinks not only of his father, but his own life and family, and the simple and unexpected ways in which he can find new meaning.

Heartfelt and insightful, Preparing for Nothingness is a poignant reflection on life's intractable impermanence and how one can find solace in the face of life's greatest mystery.

Review Quotes

"Magnificent--a meditation on what makes our fleeting time on earth quietly precious."
--Brian Greene, author of The Elegant Universe and Until the End of Time

"Did somebody dare Alan Lightman to write a novel about the meaning of life? Because that's just what he's done--with intellectual clarity, tenderness, and wit--and it is, in a word, radiant."
--Julia Glass, author of Vigil Harbor and Three Junes, winner of the National Book Award in Fiction

"What a remarkable book this is, wide-ranging, learned, and sweet-tempered. I wish it could be assigned to all students who are about to graduate from college or university. It builds up momentum beautifully. . . . There is so much wonderful wisdom in this book."
--Charles Baxter, author of The Feast of Love, finalist for the National Book Award in Fiction

"Original and unexpected, Preparing for Nothingness. . . . unravel[s] the mystery of our shared mortality. The book invites the reader to take a seat in the grand auditorium and study death--not from the safe confines of the academy, but from a perspective both personal and existential."
--Anita Hannig, author of The Day I Die

"Profound, powerful, and poetic. . . . Lightman's most innovative and mind-opening work since his extraordinary Einstein's Dreams."
--Roman Krznaric, author of The Good Ancestor and History for Tomorrow

"Insightful and highly accessible. . . . This book is an excellent companion for people of all ages."
--Peter C. Phan, the Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought, Georgetown University

"Ambitious and literary. . . . This novel encourages us, invites us, to consider the immense question of our finite time in this world."
--Nicholson Browning, psychiatrist and former instructor at Harvard Medical School

"I loved the awe, gratitude, and grandeur of the material world, both future and past, Lightman evokes in this novel. I especially loved Ludvig's meanderings and shudders of mortal inspiration."
--Micah Greenstein, Senior Rabbi at Temple Israel, Memphis TN

"Mortality and Nothingness are the most widely commented and perhaps widely misunderstood of human experiences. . . . Preparing for Nothingness explores a range of interpretations from nihilism to hopefulness to mystery in our common human quest to understand the fundamental nature of death and life."
--The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi Rinpoche, author of Running Toward Mystery

About the Author

ALAN LIGHTMAN, PhD physicist, is the author of seven novels, including the international best seller Einstein's Dreams and The Diagnosis, a finalist for the National Book Award. He has taught at Harvard and at MIT, and is the host of the public television series Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science. He is a professor of the practice of the humanities at MIT.