Preparing for Nothingness

A profound and moving novel about life, death, and what might follow from the critically acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams.

“I didn’t have a happy life,” Ludvig Bergsson’s father told him shortly before his death. Haunted by these words, Ludvig grapples with his father’s memory, charting the landscape of his eighty-seven-years. He had not seemed particularly discontent, but at some point, something must have shifted. Or, perhaps, it had been a slow and gradual decline. Had these been the words of a delirious and ailing man, or the truth as his father saw it?

Troubled by these unanswered questions, Ludvig suggests that his university’s next annual symposium address one of life’s greatest challenges: How might we prepare for its inevitable end? Each guest lecturer—an Argentinian psychologist, an astrophyscist, a troubled philosopher, a Christian theologian, a hospice worker, and a Buddhist monk—grapple with the question of what it means to live a good life, and how to make peace not only with death, but with what may or may not follow. As he listens to their presentations, Ludvig thinks not only of his father, but his own life and family, and the simple and unexpected ways in which he can find new meaning.

Heartfelt and insightful, Preparing for Nothingness is a poignant reflection on life’s intractable impermanence and how one can find solace in the face of life’s greatest mystery.