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In his latest book, John Gray, one of our leading philosophers, draws on an extraordinary array of memoirs, poems, fiction and philosophy to make us re-imagine our place in the world.

Writers as varied as Ballard, Borges, Freud and Conrad are mesmerised by forms of human extremity – experiences on the outer edge of the possible, or which tip into fantasy and myth. What happens to us when we starve, when we fight, when we are imprisoned? And how do our imaginations leap into worlds way beyond our real experience?