Description

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A unique celebration of silence—in art, literature, nature, and spirituality—and an exploration of its ability to bring inner peace, widen our perspectives, and inspire the human spirit in spite of the noise of contemporary life.

Silence is habitually overlooked—after all, throughout our lives, it has to compete with the cacophony of the outside world and our near-constant interior dialogue that judges, analyzes, compares, and questions. But, if we can get past this barrage, there lies a quiet place that’s well worth discovering.

The Lost Art of Silence encourages us to embrace this pursuit and allow the warm light of silence to glow. Invoking the wisdom of many of the greatest writers, thinkers, contemplatives, historians, musicians, and artists, Sarah Anderson reveals the sublime nature of quiet that’s all too often undervalued. Throughout, she shares her own penetrating insights into the potential for silence to transform us. This celebration of silence invites us to widen our perspective and shows its power to inspire the human spirit in spite of the distracting noise of contemporary life.

About the Author

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SARAH ANDERSON founded the Travel Bookshop in London in 1979, the shop later featured in the film Notting Hill. She studied Chinese at the London University college of SOAS, and at Heythrop, where she earned an MA in the psychology of religion. She has taught travel writing at City University, writes regular travel pieces, reviews books, and gives talks worldwide. Her paintings have been exhibited throughout London, and she is the author of the book Heaven’s Face Thinly Veiled.

Praise For…

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“We live in a noisy world. In The Lost Art of Silence, Sarah Anderson reminds us what peace there is when we get away from the din and the clamor going on both in the outside world and inside our heads. Through a rich compendium of historical and personal examples we are shown the prizes, and sometimes pitfalls, that silence offers. A fascinating book to dip into when we want to opt out.”
—Vicki Mackenzie, author of Cave in the Snow

“A fascinating travelogue through the many worlds of silence as expressed by writers, artists, philosophers, hermits. This compendium of experience and reflections on silence spans the cosmic to the horrifying, offering a full spectrum of human engagement with the quest for quiet. Anderson shares inspiring stories and heroic encounters with the self in silence, encouraging readers to take up the quest and join the legions across history who have, in the end, found that ‘silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything.’”
—Stephanie Kaza, author of Conversations with Trees

“Elegant and ethereal. . . . Readers will be fascinated by the author’s wide-ranging musings and drawn in by her lyrical language. . . . This is spellbinding.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Erudite and pleasantly eccentric. . . . Anyone looking for inspiration to turn down the world's volume will find a useful starting point here.”
—Shelf Awareness