All We Want: Building the Life We Cannot Buy

Our lives are defined by a story of endless growth and consumption. Now a climate crisis demands that we change. Can we write new stories? In All We Want, award-winning author Michael Harris dismantles our untenable consumer culture and delivers surprising, heartwarming alternatives. Drawing on the wisdom of philosophers, scientists, and artists, Harris uncovers three realms where humans have always found deeper meaning: the worlds of Craft, the Sublime, and Care. Past attempts to blunt our impact on the environment have simply redirected our consumption—we bought fuel-efficient cars and canvas tote bags. We cannot, however, buy our way out of this crisis. We need, instead, compelling new stories about life's purpose. Part meditation and part manifesto, All We Want is a blazing inquest into the destructive and unfulfilling promise of our consumer society, and a roadmap toward a more humane future.

About the Author :
MICHAEL HARRIS is the bestselling author of The End of Absence, Solitude, and All We Want. A recipient of the Governor General's Literary Award, he is also a faculty member in the Literary Journalism program at the Banff Centre and the writer of the award-winning podcast "Command Line Heroes." He lives with his husband in Vancouver. www.MichaelJohnHarris.com

Review :
"No writer is as humane, insightful, and clear-eyed as Michael Harris. His journey into the rabbit hole of consumer desire is one we all need to follow, and he makes it a joy along the way." —Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book and The Orchid Thief "Delineate[s] ways to fashion a more honest relationship to both the material and immaterial world, whether that means building a birchbark canoe by hand or surrendering one's ego to the glory of the natural world." —The Tyee   "All We Want follows Harris's two popular and award-winning titles, The End of Absence and Solitude. Read together, they're an impressive portrait of intellectual effort; they showcase a person seeking respite from troubling global trends. An enticing synthesis of personal anecdotes and wide-ranging research." —Vancouver Sun "It's visceral, evocative, disturbing, and enlightening. . . . All We Want is a fascinating intellectual journey." —The Georgia Straight   "We all know we need to trade our troubled relationship with consumerism for something more deeply satisfying and environmentally sane. Michael Harris does the hard work of understanding what that 'something' is, and shares the secret in flat-out dazzling writing full of wisdom and surprises." —J.B. MacKinnon, author of The Day the World Stops Shopping   "A feast of ideas, encounters, and brave exploration lovingly rendered." —John Vaillant, author of The Golden Spruce and The Jaguar's Children "After first chronicling many of the often-overlooked environmental and personal consequences of our grasping culture, All We Want goes on to propose a solution so humane and original, so possible, that it stands a chance of rescuing both our planet and our small, struggling selves. This is a marvelous, uplifting book, unique among others of its kind." —Barbara Gowdy, author of The White Bone "All We Want is a thoughtful examination of consumer desire, but it's much more than that. Harris's storytelling is entertaining, poignant, and totally eye-opening—a search for antidotes in our times of planetary emergency." —Charlotte Gill, author of Eating Dirt "A gorgeous bit of magic is woven before our eyes. The prison humanity has built for itself—this sparkling maze of more—is transformed into an escape hatch. A damning study of humanity's insatiable appetites becomes a love song for our higher purpose." —Arno Kopecky, author of The Environmentalist's Dilemma "A potent antidote to the culture of consumption destroying our planet from a philosopher-poet for our times. Harris offers inspiration and alternatives that could change the world." —Carol Shaben, author of Into the Abyss "Desire, need, and what makes a good life. This eloquent treatise encourages us to rethink these timeless subjects, and to make our aperture of understanding both bigger and smaller—to appreciate both the sublime wonder of the world and the intimate acts of craft and care that contemporary capitalism obscures and devalues. This lyrical meditation is for everyone who feels trapped in the knowledge that our culture of consumer abundance depletes and destroys the environment without truly nourishing or satisfying our souls." —Astra Taylor, author of Remake the World "Michael Harris teaches us an essential lesson in a moving, beautifully written book. We pursue material things that wreck the planet and make us miserable while neglecting things that will make us happier and the world better. Worse yet, the more materialist we are, the more the things that matter recede from view. Time is running out. Reading this book may inspire you to blaze a more enlightened trail—to save yourself, those you love, and the earth." —Barry Schwartz, author of Why We Work and co-author of Practical Wisdom