Winner 2012 Montaigne Medal, Eric Hoffer Award to the most thought-provoking titles each year.
As a master of the word, Rubem Alves relates events and experiences in life where God, religiosity, love, beauty and the meaning of life are always present. They are his Transparencies of eternity — a collection of poetic and spiritual chronicles in which the author draws transparent and multicolor stained glass windows, using as raw material the existence and the multiple faces of God: sometimes God is «an artist, who gathers the shards of my stained glass, smashed by random stoning, and places them again in the cathedral’s window so that the sun’s rays may shine through them again»; sometimes God is «a great, huge Emptiness that encompasses the whole beauty of the universe». Even more: God is a parent who doesn’t know how to add. «God is not in the business of accounting God doesn’t add up either virtue or sins. This is how love is. It has no why’s. It is reasonless. Love for love’s sake. No accounting of good or of evil. With such a God the universe becomes more humble. And fears vanish».
In this book are collected texts that masterfully comprise both a profound knowledge and the major existential questions of humankind. The texts flow with a simplicity of rare beauty, and the result could not be better: spirituality is presented through a new lens, attracting, instigating and enchanting readers who want to broaden their horizons.
