In this collection of essays, writer, critic, poet, and artist John Berger (1926–2017) reflects on the horrors of modern wars, terrorism, and the nature of all-consuming despair. On the pages of the book, he reveals the lives of people for whom this feeling has become a constant companion — the poor and refugees from Afghanistan, Palestine, Iraq, and Syria — and invites us to share in their mourning for the freedom forcibly taken from them.

Drawing on the plots of films by Pier Paolo Pasolini, the works of Francis Bacon, photographs by Ahlam Shibli and Jitka Hanzlová, and recalling Susan Sontag's "Regarding the Pain of Others," Berger analyzes how art, as a tool of resistance against repressive politics, can help overcome pain, fear, and hatred.