Author: Scilla Elworthy

Publisher : ISBN 978-1-58394-862-0 326 Pages

What’s it about? : The opening words of this book says much about the content, “We live in a world that is miserable and frightening for most of its inhabitants. Many of the rich are not happy, while the gap between rich and poor gets wider.” This statement sets the tone for Ms Elworthy’s book (a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee).

Who’s it for? : If you are actively seeking to find a new meaning in the misery and chaos all around us, then this book is for you. It isn’t an easy read and you can console yourself with the fact that Donald Trump would probably it? a public book burning.

Why read it? : Give some free space to your inner self. This book raises doubts but also goes a way toward addressing them. A reader summed it up as, “a book that serves as an intense course in human development in the light of social and ecological change.”

What’s the style? : Very autobiographical, the author explains how she came to her beliefs and suggest how you can too. For some, it’s probably too touchy-feely, for others it’s a fresh spring shower of hope in a big, bad world.

And the best advice? : “Waking up to who we really are” in Chapter 7 (page191 give some useful insights into what drives the author and her (at times) single-minded quest to take, head on the lonely task of healing the planet
… and if only time to read one chapter ?: We’d go for Chapter 9 (page 263) “Green Shoots Through Concrete” if only because you have to wade through some pretty worrying planetary outcomes. There’s a lot of doom, despondency, and disaster in this, but we also need to know what’s coming our way and Ms Elworthy doesn’t hold back.

How MCE rate it ?: Four out of five, if only because it’s an honourable try at setting the world to rights. But it preaches, we imagine, to the already converted.

How to buy it? : Here on Amazon.