Yoga

A raucous and brilliant anatomy of a breakdown by Emmanuel Carrère, one of our brightest and most surprising international writers. Emmanuel Carrère is a renowned writer. Following the success of his latest novel, he goes on a rigorous ten-day Buddhist meditation retreat in search of clarity. But he’s also in search of material for his next book, which he thinks will be a subtle, upbeat introduction to yoga. When he’s asked to leave the secluded retreat early and return to Paris, breaking the community’s cardinal rule, his life begins to unravel, along with his novel in progress. His marriage grinds to a halt, as does his episodic relationship with another woman. The catastrophic depression that follows will push him to the edge of sanity, leading him to a psychiatric hospital, where treatment includes ketamine and electroshock therapy. He escapes to Greece, taking solace in teaching young refugees to write—but still, he’s stalked by existential dread and the hollow sense that something has gone horribly wrong in the world, if not just in his own mind. A moving, wise, and funny account of madness, meditation, and mayhem, Yoga is a major book from “France’s greatest writer of nonfiction” (The New York Times Magazine). It’s a breakthrough work that shuns apathy and awakens us to ourselves, by a literary luminary.