The Soul of the Marionette

TLS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016''Gray must be one of the best read of contemporary philosophers, trawling insouciantly through high-, middle- and low-brow literature with the sharp-eyed eclecticism of a magpie of genius'' John Banville, Guardian''Like Isaiah Berlin with a thing for sci-fi'' Tibor Fischer, SpectatorEveryone thinks they want to be free - or do they? John Gray''s thought-stirring new book on freedom draws together insights from Gnosticism, science fiction, ancient sacrifice and the occult to show that freedom is an illusion and that, like fairground puppets, humans dream of escaping the burden of choice altogether.>

Auteur

John Gray is the author of a number of highly regarded and controversial books, including False Dawn, Straw Dogs and, most recently, The Silence of Animals. He has taught at Oxford, Harvard, Yale and the LSE. John Banville described The Silence of Animals as 'a marvellous statement of what it is to be both an animal and a human in the strange, terrifying and exquisite world in which we straw dogs find ourselves'.

Texte du rabat

We flatter ourselves about the nature of free will and yet the most enormous forces - biological, physical, metaphysical - constrain our every action. This title draws together the religious, philosophic and fantastical traditions that question the very idea of human freedom.