"As I walked out the door toward the gate that would lead to my freedom, I knew if I didn't leave my bitterness and hatred behind, I'd still be in prison." - Nelson Mandela

Upon his release from Iran's notorious Evin Prison, philosopher Ramin Jahanbegloo contemplated the words of Mandela as he grappled with demons arising from being unjustly imprisoned.

He then began to wrestle with ideas of forgiveness versus revenge, and wondered if the politics of forgiveness could offer salvation in a world where revenge endangers the social and political fabric of our lives.

"What is forgiveness, and how do we get there?" Jahanbegloo asks, in this follow-up to his internationally celebrated book Time Will Say Nothing: A Philosopher Survives an Iranian Prison.

Prevailing upon the wisdom of the Ancients, the Dalai Lama, and other great thinkers, this meditation on forgiveness and revenge offers insights into building a more peaceful world during this time of nationalism and exclusion.

The winner of the Peace Prize from the United Nations in Spain and an advisory board member of PEN Canada, Ramin Jahanbegloo is an internationally celebrated philosopher and currently York-Noor Visiting Chair in Islamic Studies and Associate Professor in Political Science at York University in Toronto.

Ramin Jahanbegloo's profile page

"An extraordinary and truly memorable read from first page to last." - Midwest Book Review

"By the end, any facile or sentimental notions of forgiveness are banished, leaving only a robust, even pragmatic argument for a possible path to peace." Publishers Weekly