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Yoga (Hardback)
Emmanuel Carrère (author), John Lambert (translator)Published: 02/06/2022
An arresting and deeply contemplative self-portrait of a man forced to face himself anew as tragic events unfold in his life, Yoga is a powerful and revelatory memoir from the acclaimed author of The Adversary.
This is a book about yoga. Or at least, it was.
January 2015. High on literary success and familial bliss, Emmanuel Carrere embarks on a rigorous ten-day meditative retreat in rural France in search of clarity and material for his next book, which he thinks will be a subtle, upbeat introduction to yoga. But his trip is cut short, and he is brought down to earth with a thud as he returns to a Paris in turmoil in the aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack.
From then on, Carrere's life begins to unravel, along with his novel-in-progress. He is diagnosed with Bipolar II Disorder and is sectioned to a psychiatric hospital for a four-month stint, where he is subject to electroshock therapy. His marriage crumbles, he is struck by grief at the death of a close friend and is haunted by a love affair with a mysterious woman who disappeared from his life. Pushed to the edge of sanity and forced to reckon with his identity as a man and a writer, Carrere sets out on a life of action instead of meditation.
This is a book that embraces the Yin and Yang of life: the pull between life and death, desire and despair, presence and absence, fight and flight. It is a book about a world and a man in tumult, and about how surprisingly far practising meditation - and writing about it - can take us in life. With raw honesty and humour, Yoga gives us the self-portrait of a man struggling to live with himself and others, by one of our greatest and most surprising international writers.
Publisher: Vintage Publishing
ISBN: 9781787333215
Number of pages: 320
Weight: 437 g
Dimensions: 222 x 144 x 31 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Completely arresting. He [Carrère] has the talent...of showing us his foibles without demanding that we identify with them. - The Times
An exhilarating new work of autofiction... It's wonderful. It is Carrère's willingness to face his own flaws full in the face that makes his writing so striking, and - dare I say it - relatable. - Cal Flyn, Literary Review
Yoga is the story of how a life can fray, tighten itself into a noose, unravel and, in the process, be built and braided into lines that make up a profound and moving work of art. - Geoff Dyer
A devastating portrait...[Carrère's] singular, ever-expanding work, in which one pain need never obscure another, in which truths and half-truths are held not in opposition but in delicate, precarious balance, is an answer in itself. - Sam Byers, Guardian
I loved Emmanuel Carrère's Yoga... A useful manual for this era, where nothing seems connected but everything's related. - Adam Thirlwell, Times Literary Supplement Books of the Year*
Unlike any book I've ever read... Carrère is anything but ordinary as a talent, but his great and precious gift is to reveal his own mind in such a way that illuminates the infinity that belongs to every human person. - Megan Nolan, author of ACTS OF DESPERATION
[With] relentless clarity of thought and confessional honesty... Yoga is fascinating on the purpose of meditation... [an] extraordinarily compelling account. - Financial Times
Stunning...Yoga is a deeply moving reflection on the painful occupation that is living. - Elle
[Carrère's] skill in constructing a narrative from disparate materials is exceptional... [and] relentlessly interesting. - Observer
Impressive... reveals itself as a monumental book on the human condition. - L'Obs
How does one harmonise the yin and yang of a life broken in two? Yoga is the implacable tale of a writer lost in his kingdom. - L'Express
An immensely engaging, lively and exciting writer... [Yoga] is increasIngly hypnotic; lyrical, hypnotic and elegant. There is no doubt that a great intellect is at work, keen to explore the depths of his own troubled mind. - Big Issue
A tender, honest, intelligent portrait of the human condition. - Scotsman
Another book of bracing candour - White Review, Books of the Year*
The most exciting living writer. - Karl Ove Knausgaard
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