GLOBAL ICONS SERIES
The Global Icons Series presents intimate conversations with and between world-renowned luminaries. In these dialogue-travelogues, readers join a narrative journey of discovery and experience a life-changing encounter with some of the most inspirational people in the world. The first in the series, The Book of Joy, featured His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu on how to find joy in the face of personal and global suffering. It sold over a million copies worldwide and has been made into a movie, by award-winning producer Peggy Callahan and Academy Award-winning director Louie Psihoyos.
The second in the series, The Book of Hope, will be published in the fall of 2021 and will bring readers into an intimate conversation with the world’s most renowned naturalist, Jane Goodall, as she explores how to cultivate hope and create a sustainable world.
The Book of Joy
An instant New York Times bestseller
Two spiritual giants. Five days. One timeless question.
Nobel Peace Prize Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have survived more than fifty years of exile and the soul-crushing violence of oppression. Despite their hardships—or, as they would say, because of them—they are two of the most joyful people on the planet.
In April 2015, Archbishop Tutu traveled to the Dalai Lama’s home in Dharamsala, India, to celebrate His Holiness’s eightieth birthday and to create what they hoped would be a gift for others. They looked back on their long lives to answer a single burning question: How do we find joy in the face of life’s inevitable suffering?
They traded intimate stories, teased each other continually, and shared their spiritual practices. By the end of a week filled with laughter and punctuated with tears, these two global heroes had stared into the abyss and despair of our time and revealed how to live a life brimming with joy.
This book offers us a rare opportunity to experience their astonishing and unprecendented week together, from the first embrace to the final good-bye.
We get to listen as they explore the Nature of True Joy and confront each of the Obstacles of Joy—from fear, stress, and anger to grief, illness, and death. They then offer us the Eight Pillars of Joy, which provide the foundation for lasting happiness. Throughout, they include stories, wisdom, and science. Finally, they share their daily Joy Practices that anchor their own emotional and spiritual lives.
The Archbishop has never claimed sainthood, and the Dalai Lama considers himself a simple monk. In this unique collaboration, they offer us the reflection of real lives filled with pain and turmoil in the midst of which they have been able to discover a level of peace, of courage, and of joy to which we can all aspire in our own lives.
Winner of the 2016 Books for a Better Life Award in Spirituality
“The question may be timeless, but their answer has urgent significance.”
—Time Magazine
“[An] exquisite book…An intimate glimpse into the minds of two of the world’s spiritual guides, and their foundation for an attainable and practical approach to experiencing a more enriching and sustainable life of abundant joy.”
—Shelf Awareness
“This sparkling, wise, and immediately useful gift to readers from two remarkable spiritual masters offers hope that joy is possible for everyone even in the most difficult circumstances, and describes a clear path for attaining it.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The world needs joy and compassion more than ever before – and who better than Archbishop Tutu and the Dalai Lama to show us how it is done. This beautiful book takes us on the journey of their friendship and gives us the gift of their wisdom. A bright spot of hope and love in this world.”
—Sir Richard Branson
“It’s a book that transports you deep within the intimate friendship that binds these two incredible souls. And it’s a book that vividly probes the very nature of joy itself — the illusions that eclipse it, the obstacles that obscure it, the practices that cultivate it, and the pillars that sustain it.”
—Rich Roll, The Rich Roll Podcast
The Book of Hope
In a world that seems so troubled, how do we hold on to hope?
Looking at the headlines—a global pandemic, the worsening climate crisis, political upheaval—it can be hard to feel optimistic. And yet hope has never been more desperately needed.
In this urgent book, Jane Goodall, the world’s most famous living naturalist and Doug Abrams, internationally-bestselling author, explore—through intimate and thought-provoking dialogue—one of the most sought after and least understood elements of human nature: hope. In The Book of Hope, Jane focuses on her “Four Reasons for Hope”: The Amazing Human Intellect, The Resilience of Nature, The Power of Young People, and The Indomitable Human Spirit.
Told through stories from a remarkable career and fascinating research, The Book of Hope touches on vital questions including: How do we stay hopeful when everything seems hopeless? How do we cultivate hope in our children? Filled with engaging dialogue and pictures from Jane’s storied career, The Book of Hope is a deeply personal conversation with one of the most beloved figures in today’s world.
And for the first time, Jane tells the story of how she became a messenger of hope: from living through World War II, to her years in Gombe, to realizing she had to leave the forest to travel the world in her role as an advocate for environmental justice. She details the forces that shaped her hopeful worldview, her thoughts on her past, and her revelations about her next—and perhaps final—adventure.
There is still hope, and this book will help guide us to it.
For unique videos and excerpts from The Book of Joy, more information about the series or the upcoming movie, and original resources from Idea Architects on how you can be part of creating a wiser, healthier, more just world, join our community and sign up here.
