The Messenger in White: Impermanence and Its Blessings

From one of the most captivating and perceptive writers of our time and the bestselling author of Aflame—a life-affirming memoir on the challenges of facing death

For forty years, Pico Iyer has been known as a keen observer of crisscrossing cultures and a soulful exponent of the art of stillness. As he sat beside his mother during her final seasons, he faced a newly intimate and bracing consideration of aging and parent-child relationships.

To his surprise, he found that the best guide to understanding this archetypal passage was the poet that he and his mother both loved, William Shakespeare. Inspired by canonical Shakespeare texts, Iyer investigates how to care for an elderly parent while staring down anxieties about his own mortality, what to do when the future flattens into a perpetual present, and how we might find joy in this impermanent world.

The Messenger in White is a tender look at the bracing changes, challenges, and delights that emerge as we age. With magnetic storytelling, gorgeous prose, and abundant good humor, Iyer charts a course through the storms of later life into the surprises and possibilities that lie beyond.