Author Talks: Autumn Light: Pico Iyer with Kurt Andersen

From one of our most astute observers of human nature, a far-reaching exploration of Japanese history and culture and a moving meditation on impermanence, mortality, and grief.

When his father-in-law dies suddenly, Pico Iyer and his wife Hiroko are called back to Japan to take care of his affairs, and to mourn their loss. Despite the many years Iyer has spent living between California and Nara, where he and Hiroko have a small home, the unexpected circumstance of their return causes him to grapple with the questions we all face: how can we reconcile loving people and places while simultaneously acknowledging life’s impermanence? Through encounters with his wife’s family, the elder members of his father-in-law’s ping-pong club, and the deep reddening of the maple leaves as Japan transitions into autumn, Iyer lets us in on a country and a culture through the transformation of his grief.

Iyer will be joined in conversation by author and host of Studio 360, Kurt Andersen. 

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