Black Light

Simone Weil is perhaps the most brilliant thinker of the 20th century, and certainly the most puzzling. She passed away at just 34 years of age, and yet left behind a massive oeuvre that continues to challenge readers. Against the backdrop of current developments, Navid Kermani analyses Weil’s dramatic life and intellectual development, articulating a new interpretation of her thought.

Kermani draws primarily on the famous Notebooks, Weil’s writings from the years 1933 to 1943 – remarkable testaments to spirituality in a time in which European religion was being dismantled. Kermani shows how this young woman, who identified as a Christian but faced the threat of persecution as a Jew, attained a kind of enlightenment that was more akin to radical doubt than the truth of organised religion. And he brings Weil’s mysticism into dialogue with Adorno’s dialectics. A fascinating exploration of the possibilities of metaphysics before and after its fall.