In an existentialist café

Philosophy as a life programme

The year is 1933. In the Bec-de-Gaz bar in Paris, not far from the Luxembourg Gardens, three young friends order an apricot cocktail. The drink is one of the local specialities, so there's nothing particularly unusual about it—except that the second round will fundamentally influence world philosophy, literature, and culture.

The three at the small table are Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Raymond Aron. They have just been introduced to phenomenology, a philosophical movement proclaiming a return 'to the things themselves'. Suddenly, an empty glass or the bored waiter clearing it away can become a subject of philosophical interest.

This moment is also where this book begins. Sarah Bakewell, with both erudition and a light touch, recounts the life stories of leading European thinkers, writers, and playwrights—Martin Heidegger, Albert Camus, Jan Patočka, and others. In doing so, she follows the existentialist thread through the history of world thought.

A Top Ten of 2016 according to The New York Times, and a book of the year in The Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, The Observer, and others.

––––

Warm and intellectually rigorous at once… perhaps the best aphorism to sum up the book comes from Bakewell herself: 'Thinking should be generous, and have a good appetite.'
– Financial Times

An impossibly readable blend of biography, philosophy, history, cultural analysis and personal reflection.
– The Independent