InThe Happy LifeDavid Malouf addresses one of the most fundamental questions of all: what makes for a happy life? In an age where our bookshelves are full of self-help volumes and tales of perfect romantic love, his discussion is particularly relevant. He asks why, when so many of the essential 'unhappinesses' - premature death, famine, plague, material poverty - have largely disappeared in the developed world, does happiness continue to elude us? With elegance and insight, David Malouf finds new and old ways to talk about contentment and the self. He returns to the wisdom of the classics, and discusses how, thanks to Thomas Jefferson, happiness became a 'right'; in a dialogue on Rubens and Rembrandt he explores the sensual happiness of the flesh; he covers the difficulties of the modern world's obsession with consumption; and finally the consolation and sympathy provided by art and literature. In luminous prose, with ideas to savour and reflect upon, Malouf distills millennia of thought and philosophy inThe Happy Lifeinto a fascinating and tangible argument.

David Malouf is an internationally acclaimed author. His books include the novelsThe Great World(winner of the Commonwealth Writers' prize and the Prix Femina Étranger),Remembering Babylon(shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award),An Imaginary Life,Conversations at Curlow Creek,and his latest,Ransom(winner of the Criticos Prize), the short story collectionsDream Stuff('These stories are pearls'Spectator), andEvery Move You Make('Rare and luminous talent'Guardian), and his autobiographical classic12 Edmondstone Street.HisCollected Storieswon the 2008 Australia-Asia Literary Award. In 2008 Malouf was the Scottish Arts' Council Muriel Spark International Fellow. Born in 1934 in Brisbane, he now lives in Sydney.

A wise, elegant discussion with a modern twist from Man Booker-shortlisted David Malouf on the fundamental question: what makes for a happy life?