“{Iyer} is a consummate tour guide, knowledgeable of his surroundings yet alert to all that might strike foreign eyes as unexpected or inexplicable…{He} remains alert to beauty as well as to loss, but his book is replete with a quiet assuredness.” —The New Yorker

Autumn Light

Season of Fire and Farewells

In this “exquisite personal blend of philosophy and engagement, inner quiet and worldly life” (Los Angeles Times), an acclaimed author returns to his longtime home in Japan after his father-in-law’s sudden death and picks up the steadying patterns of his everyday rites, reminding us to take nothing for granted.

In a country whose calendar is marked with occasions honoring the dead, Pico Iyer comes to reflect on changelessness in ways that anyone can relate to: parents age, children scatter, and Iyer and his wife turn to whatever can sustain them as everything falls away. As the maple leaves begin to turn and the heat begins to soften, Iyer shows us a Japan we have seldom seen before, where the transparent and the mysterious are held in a delicate balance.

“An exquisite personal blend of philosophy and engagement, inner quiet and worldly life.”Los Angeles Times

“A strange emotional fragility arises after sinking into the book, a heightened awareness of what is usually neglected. As I was reading, I often found myself staring out the window in reverie; catching sight of a falling leaf would inexplicably cause me to cry…It’s not only a joy to read, it’s helpful.”Los Angeles Review of Books

“A tremendously wise book on the late fires of marriage, how moving towards old age, if you’re lucky, as [Iyer] is, a burst of warmth emerges to push you forward into the final step, the journey no one’s been able to write about.”Lit Hub