From Pankaj Mishra, the Windham-Campbell Prize-winning author of The World After Gaza, a meditation on the life and legacy of the Buddha, refracted through one man's search for identity and one nation's experience of independence Now in the Picador Collection.

‘Mishra’s book is in the best tradition of Buddhism, both dispassionate and deeply engaged, complicated and simple, erudite and profoundly humane’ The New York Times

An accomplished history of the Buddha, An End to Suffering is also a deeply personal story – the story of Pankaj Mishra’s search for meaning, for truth and peace in the modern world and, specifically, in a postcolonial, independent India. As he describes his travels to unearth the origins of the Buddha, Mishra offers glimpses into his own quest for enlightenment, from childhood to the September 11 attacks, from family background to friends met and made, from lessons learned to his achievements as a writer. Through this, Mishra reveals the parallels between his time and the Buddha’s, between their respective journeys – and that of their country – in search of progress and reconciliation.

‘Mishra is one of the most important voices of our generation’ Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

"Mishra's book is in the best tradition of Buddhism, both dispassionate and deeply engaged, complicated and simple, erudite and profoundly humane" - New York Times

"Casual and impressive . . . Mishra's prose has an unforced elegance" - Independent

"Mishra evokes with perfectly modulated lyricism a world few of us have seen from within . . . He is the rare writer who is at ease as a historian, philosopher, traveller, and memoirist, and the combination of roles allows him to produce a book that few others could even have attempted" - New York Review of Books

"Mishra has the erudition and wit to rove far and wide intellectually. He is exact in his detail, circumspect in his generalisation. A formidable travelling companion in this unique and entertaining quest" - Observer

"A hugely timely study, interwoven with the Western “discovery” of Buddhism, a history of ancient India and Hinduism, excellent knowledge of many of the important philosophical thinkers, and Mishra’s own memoirs of India. It is perhaps in these personal accounts where Mishra is at his best, simply because of the sheer evocative power of his language, and the land and landscape he conjures up" - Scotland on Sunday

"Insightful, moving . . . also deeply, angrily, at times touchingly, a book about India today" - Times Literary Supplement

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A mixture of memoir, history, political and philosophical treatise, An End to Suffering sets out to tell the story of the Buddha. Mishra leads us on his own journey from India, to Europe, to America, to the mountains of the Hindu Kush. Descartes, Schopenhauer and Hume jostle for attention, along with pensees on the rise of the nation state, the end of history and Islamic fundamentalism. It sounds an
almighty mess. The extraordinary thing is that it works, and triumphantly

"Highly intelligent" - New Statesman

"Three books disguised as one – succinct, lucid and coherent – and the story of someone who journeyed from the outside of history to its centre" - Los Angeles Times