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For the Time Being

Essays (PEN Literary Award Winner)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
For the Time Being is a profound meditation by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard exploring life's biggest questions: Why do we exist? Where did we come from? How can one person matter? Through vivid, haunting images—from ancient terra-cotta figures to the diversity of clouds—Dillard illuminates the awe and mystery that lie beyond human understanding, blending keen observation with spiritual inquiry.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$5100

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book suits readers interested in philosophy, spirituality, and deep reflections on existence, especially those who appreciate lyrical, thought-provoking nonfiction.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Explores the rich diversities of our world, ranging from a natural history of sand to the rise of Hasidic thought to the eternal questions of God, evil, individuality, and time.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

National Bestseller. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and one of the most compelling writers of our time comes a "beautifully written and delightfully strange" (Daily News) narrative that renews our ability to discover wonder in life's smallest—and often darkest—corners.

For the Time Being is Annie Dillard's most profound narrative to date. With her keen eye, penchant for paradox, and yearning for truth, Dillard asks: Why do we exist? Where did we come from? How can one person matter? Dillard searches for answers in a powerful array of images—pictures of bird-headed dwarfs in the standard reference of human birth defects; ten thousand terra-cotta figures fashioned for a Chinese emperor in place of the human court that might have followed him into death; the paleontologist and theologian Teilhard de Chardin crossing the Gobi Desert; the dizzying variety of clouds.

Vivid, eloquent, haunting, For the Time Being evokes no less than the terrifying grandeur of all that remains tantalizingly and troublingly beyond our understanding.

"Beautifully written and delightfully strange...as earthy as it is sublime...in the truest sense, an eye-opener." - Daily News

"Stimulating, humbling, original. Dillard illuminates the human perspective of the world, past, present and future, and the individual's relatively inconsequential but ever so unique place in it." - Rocky Mountain News

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Critics praise For the Time Being as a brilliant, rare, and exhilarating work. David Bowman of Salon Magazine calls it a succinct summation of God, while James Zug from Outside Magazine highlights its emotional and mind-expanding reflection on humanity’s place in nature. Publishers Weekly applauds Dillard’s razor-sharp lyricism and spiritual yearning as she contemplates life, death, and eternity.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780375703478

Publisher: Random House USA Inc

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 08 February 2000

Country: United States

Imprint: Vintage Books

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 14.0mm

Width: 132.0mm

Height: 201.0mm

Weight: 181g

Pages: 224

About the Author

ANNIE DILLARD lives in Middletown, Connecticut.

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