The fourth and final volume of Simone Weil's Notebooks contains texts related to the last year of the philosopher's life—from the beginning of her exile to the terminal illness that prevented her fervent desire to sacrifice her life for France's freedom in the armed struggle against the Nazis.

In addition to the Notebooks themselves, this edition includes a number of articles on religious, political, and even military topics. Mystical intensity, the fervor of a preacher, and readiness for a martyr's end are combined here with balanced and insightful political analysis. The pursuit of absolute Good, proclaimed as the sole goal, is paired with ideas and proposals whose practical wisdom has been confirmed by time and experience.

The volume is complemented by a conversation between the translator and literary critic Olga Ball. The edition is dedicated to the memory of François Fédier, a French philosopher who passed away on April 29, 2021.

"The urgent, pressing task: to construct the logic of the absurd. To determine, as far as possible, the criterion of true and false in that transcendent domain where contradiction is appropriate—in the realm of mystery. In this domain, precision is needed even more than in mathematics. A new precision, of which today there is no conception. Here is the criterion: the truly absurd is a reflection, transposition, translation of one of the irremovable absurdities in the conditions of human existence. These irremovable absurdities need to be investigated." — Simone Weil