Stephen Benatar: 10 books

Rachel Waring is deliriously happy. Out of nowhere, a great-aunt leaves her a Georgian mansion in another city—and she sheds her old life without delay. Gone is her dull administrative job, her mousy wardrobe, her downer of a roommate. She will live as a woman of leisure, devoted to beauty, creativity,...

A man who married young, and so never had the chance to sow his wild oats, suddenly breaks out when in his mid-thirties—and becomes convinced he has stumbled on the secret of happiness.  

A young German spy is sent to investigate the authenticity of something which may—or may not—be a stratagem perpetrated by the British.   

Two women looking back over fifty years: one full of regret, the other not admitting to mistakes and continuing to be fiercely positive. Which approach, in the end, is likely to prove more satisfying—both for Daisy herself and for those who live around her?    

Both novellas completely separate but about putting right the mess two men have made out of their lives.    

The story of a father and son—and is it true, as Wordsworth claimed, that “the child is father of the man” or can one’s character actually change as one grows older?   

A love story between men—without being, basically, a novel about gay issues; more about appreciating what you have while you have it, and ultimately learning what matters to you in life.  

Two men are involved in a car crash: Brad dies, and Danny—who can’t stand the thought of living without him—kills himself, convinced that with so little time having elapsed between their deaths, he’ll be able to catch up to Brad on his way to Judgment. The novel becomes a modern Pilgrim’s Progress, detailing the tests inseparable from a journey through purgatory.

A vicar is disbelieving when two teenagers in his parish claim to have been given a message by the archangel Gabriel, but gradually changes his mind and decides he must do something about it.

Do our lives have meaning? Should we create more people? Is death bad? Should we commit suicide? Would it be better to be immortal? Should we be optimistic or pessimistic? Since Life, Death, and Meaning: Key Philosophical Readings on the Big Questions first appeared, David Benatar's distinctive anthology...