A stunningly beautiful work of inquiry into what makes us human, what we can know about each other, and what makes life worth living in an increasingly dismal time.
To See Beyond
Our hyper-informed digital era of climate catastrophe, historically unmatched migration, and genocide confronts us with a terrible conundrum: the pain and struggles of others are more visible than ever, yet hostility and loneliness persist. It often seems that we are on the edge of ruin, and hope, though necessary, is elusive. How can we reconcile ourselves to the world we have made?
In To See Beyond, Anna Badkhen probes the ways we ward off despair as she imagines the language we need for survival. Through engagement with contemporary literature and stories of everyday encounters with people around the world, she brings us closer to understanding how we balance delight and grief, joy and hurt, and choose to embrace life as a form of resistance.
Orion Magazine “Recommendations” selection
Literary Hub “New Books” & “Most Anticipated Books” selections
Foreword Reviews “Book of the Day” selection
BookBrowse “Best New Books Publishing This Month” selection
Mrs. Dalloway’s “New Paperback Picks” selection
Seminary Co-op Bookstores “Front Table” selection
Ebook
- ISBN
- 9781954276550
Paperback
- ISBN
- 9781954276543
Anna Badkhen shares the stories behind To See Beyond with Publishers Weekly, and on the Synergia and Speaking Out of Place podcasts.
Tune in to Anna Badkhen’s playlist for To See Beyond at Largehearted Boy.
Preview essays from To See Beyond in Adi Magazine, Aeon, Agni, Compass, Emergence Magazine, Literary Hub, New York Review of Books, Orion, Pittsburgh Review of Books, Virginia Quarterly Review, Words Without Borders, and World Literature Today.
Events
Anna Badkhen, author of To See Beyond, at Community Bookstore
Community Bookstore welcomes Anna Badkhen, author of To See Beyond, for a book talk and conversation with Nimmi Gowrinathan.
Anna Badkhen, author of To See Beyond, at Greenlight Bookstore
Greenlight Bookstore welcomes Anna Badkhen, author of To See Beyond, for a Scientific American Summer Reading Challenge panel discussion with Rowan Jacobson and Karmela Padavic-Callaghan, moderated by Brianne Kane.
Anna Badkhen, author of To See Beyond, at Harvard Book Store
Harvard Book Store welcomes Anna Badkhen, author of To See Beyond, for a book talk and conversation with Teju Cole.
Anna Badkhen, author of To See Beyond, at The Wild Detectives
The Wild Detectives welcomes Anna Badkhen, author of To See Beyond, for a book talk and conversation with Alysia Nicole Harris.
Anna Badkhen, author of To See Beyond, at Politics and Prose at The Wharf
Politics and Prose at The Wharf welcomes Anna Badkhen, author of To See Beyond, for a book talk and conversation with Andrea Pitzer.
Anna Badkhen is the author of eight books of nonfiction, including To See Beyond and Bright Unbearable Reality, longlisted for the National Book Award. Born in the Soviet Union and a former war correspondent, she is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Barry Lopez Visiting Writer in Ethics and Community Fellowship, and the Joel R. Seldin Award for Excellence in Peace and Justice Journalism, among other honors. She is an artist in residence at the University of Pennsylvania and lives in Philadelphia.
visit author page »Praise for To See Beyond
No book I have read in recent years is more relevant to our time, more insightful, more probing, more unsparing in its analysis or more generous of heart than To See Beyond. Anna Badkhen’s lifetime of deep reading and dangerous living has yielded these profoundly moving essays that range from Canary Islands myth to hunger stones, from ‘radical hope’ and child soldiers to micro-love and prayer beads and a lifejacket graveyard on Lesvos. Through it all, she insists on asking the common questions that unite us: How to dream, how to love, how to build a better world? If you’re looking for the answers, start with To See Beyond.
— Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk and Rasputin Swims the Potomac
In To See Beyond, Anna Badkhen wields language like a wide-eyed, percussive magician. There is little hand-holding here, thankfully. There is an exquisite exploration of where we are, how we are, who we refuse to become, and the cost of refusing to fight. The essay as a form and humans as a species need this offering.
— Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy and Long Division
Badkhen takes us on a journey—one which will help us learn a new language—the language of survival. . . . This slim volume is packed with hope, pointing to a way forward.
— Linda Bond, Auntie’s Bookstore (Spokane, WA)