A subversive and insightful look at the significance of failure and humility in giving meaning to our lives. Our culture's obsession with success is obvious, yet its relentless pursuit hides from our sight a vital truth that only failure can reveal: that we must be humble in the face of life's difficulties.

In this book, the philosopher Kostika Brandatan celebrates failure through the stories of important personalities who gave meaning to their lives through one form or another of failure (material, political, social, existential), leaving behind a significant legacy.

The French philosopher Simone Weil, who suffered lifelong from a frail constitution but reached unfathomable heights of spirituality with her thought: the religious and political leader Mahatma Gandhi, who faced numerous disappointments in the implementation of his reformist vision: the nihilist intellectual E. M. Cioran, who turned his back on social acceptance and lived a life on the margins: the writer Yukio Mishima, who zealously pursued "noble failure" within the framework of an ancient Japanese tradition.

The lives of all these individuals are transformed, in the hands of the author, into first-class narrative material from which he, with unparalleled erudition but also delightful humor, attempts to draw lessons about the true meaning and rich gifts of failure.

Prose Philosophy Award, 2024.