Together : 10 Choices For A Better Now

By Ece Temelkuran

About the book

This is not about how we messed things up. This is about what kind of world we want to live in now, and the joy we can take in finding our dignity again. ‘If I had to choose just one book that I want everybody of any age to read at this moment in time, this would be it’ Brian Eno ‘Delightful’ Yanis Varoufakis In 2020 protest movements across the world revealed the inequalities sewn into the fabric of society. The wildfires that ravaged Australia and California made it clear we are in the middle of a climate catastrophe. The pandemic showed us all just how precarious our economies really are, and the conspiracy theories surrounding the US election proved the same of our democracies. Those in charge do not have the answers. In fact, those in charge, more often that not, are the problem. So, what do we do? In Together: 10 Choices for a Better Now, award-winning political commentator Ece Temelkuran puts forward a compelling new narrative for our current moment, not for some idealised future but for right now, and asks us to make a choice. To choose determination over hope; to embrace fear rather the cold comfort of ignorance; to save our energy for an unwavering attention on those in power and the destructive systems they uphold, rather than wasting time spewing out anger and outrage online. Above all, this book asks you to choose to have faith in the other human beings we share this planet with. ‘I am giving Temelkuran’s Together to everyone I know. So clear-eyed, frank, wise and joyous! An obligatory book for any human on earth today’ Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less • This book is a cross between Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life (350k TCM), On Fire by Naomi Klein (10k TCM) and Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman. • How to Lose a Country has found many champions across the globe from Philip Pullman, to Margaret Atwood, who chose it as one of her books of the year for Barnes and Noble, and Rick O’Shea who selected it for the Essons bookclub. She’s also received praise from Jonathan Coe, Brian Eno and Chris Morris. • Ece is a touring machine. Until lockdown she was still constantly travelling around Europe, supporting How to Lose a Country. She will offer the same enthusiastic support for this book. Praise for Together: 10 Choices For A Better Now: ‘Temelkuran writes gorgeously about the human situations – from Turkey to Croatia – that demand new thinking. The insights of this book, whose tone is a potent mix of fierce urgency but unyielding calmness, make Togetheran important contribution to how politics will evolve in the era of a pandemic’ Irish Times ‘Suffering a sorrow that we can overcome. Longing for a freedom that we don’t yet have. For as long as I can remember, these have been the sensations Beethoven’s music planted into my soul. More recently, reading Ece Temelkuran’s delightful Together gave me the same sensations’ Yanis Varoufakis ‘Temelkuran is a brilliant writer, finding humour, hope and humanity in the darkest corners of our current malaise.It lifted my heart and my spirits’ Brian Eno ‘If you read only one book this year, then this must be it. Magnificent’ Sarah Winman, author of Tin Man ‘I am giving Temelkuran’s Together to everyone I know. So clear-eyed, frank, wise and joyous! An obligatory book for any human on earth today’ Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less