The Book of Memory
Or, How to Live Forever
Published on 9. October 2025
Book
Hardback
160 pages
978-1-80351-264-8 (ISBN)
Description
'The book of you is dominated by night-black seas, sprinkled with shining island sentences: tiny islets of remembrance, glimmering in the night.'
Memory isn't all that we think it is. Each time we revisit even our most deeply ingrained memories, they can soften and consolidate, distorted. Yet they also carry within them the blueprint of each person's unique style. From episodic memories like shining islands in dark water, and forgotten memories that underpin our personalities, to the memories authored by others that we carry within us, Rowlands explores our negotiations with the past and how memory makes us who we are.
Drawing on the latest neurological and psychological research and on a range of writers and thinkers, The Book of Memory is a mesmerising journey into how memories are made, lost and remembered, with important consequences for how we understand ourselves.
Memory isn't all that we think it is. Each time we revisit even our most deeply ingrained memories, they can soften and consolidate, distorted. Yet they also carry within them the blueprint of each person's unique style. From episodic memories like shining islands in dark water, and forgotten memories that underpin our personalities, to the memories authored by others that we carry within us, Rowlands explores our negotiations with the past and how memory makes us who we are.
Drawing on the latest neurological and psychological research and on a range of writers and thinkers, The Book of Memory is a mesmerising journey into how memories are made, lost and remembered, with important consequences for how we understand ourselves.
Reviews / Votes
A profound and funny examination of what it means to be fulfilled -- Tim Dowling * Praise for The Happiness of Dogs * [Offers] fresh and radical answers to some of the oldest questions in ethics. A must read -- John Gray * Praise for The Happiness of Dogs * Wise, profound, often very funny, I loved every page -- Anthony McGowan * Praise for The Happiness of Dogs * Fascinating, disturbing and ultimately reassuring - a deep dive into the messy filing cabinet of self. If you only remember one book you read this year, it will be this one. -- Tim Dowling A charming philosophical take on a fact that ought to be much more widely known: that our memories may be stories, but they are our stories. -- Charles Fernyhough * author of Pieces of Light: The New Science of Memory * Appealingly witty...you couldn't wish for a more pleasant companion to lead you on a merry dance around the idea of memory * Mail on Sunday *More details
Edition
Main
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 207 mm
Width: 133 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
216 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-80351-264-8 (9781803512648)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
MARK ROWLANDS was born in Newport, Wales. He is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Miami and the author of over twenty books, including the bestselling The Philosopher and the Wolf, and most recently The Happiness of Dogs, both also published by Granta. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages.