A Paradise Built in Hell

“A landmark book that gives impassioned challenge to the social meaning of disasters” (The New York Times Book Review) from the author of the memoir Recollections of My Nonexistence

“The freshest, deepest, most optimistic account of human nature I've come across in years.” —Bill McKibben 

Chosen as a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New Yorker, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, and Chicago Tribune

The most startling thing about disasters, according to award-winning author Rebecca Solnit, is not merely that so many people rise to the occasion, but that they do so with joy. That joy reveals an ordinarily unmet yearning for community, purposefulness, and meaningful work that disaster often provides. A Paradise Built in Hell is an investigation of the moments of altruism, resourcefulness, and generosity that arise amid disaster's grief and disruption and considers their implications for everyday life. It points to a new vision of what society could become-one that is less authoritarian and fearful, more collaborative and local.