The Soul's Code

Oct 4, 2024 3:26 PM

Author:James Hillman

The Soul's Code

Plato and the Greeks called it 'daimon', the Romans 'genius', the Christians 'Guardian Angel' - and today we use terms such as 'heart', 'spirit' and 'soul'. For James Hillman it is the central and guiding force of his utterly unique and compelling 'acorn theory' which proposes that each life is formed by a particular image, an image that is the essence of that life and calls it to a destiny, just as the mighty oak's destiny is written in the tiny acorn.

Highly accessible and imaginative, The Soul's Code offers a liberating vision of childhood troubles and an exciting approach to themes such as freedom, and, most of all, calling - that invisible mystery at the centre of every life that voices the fundamental question, 'What is in my heart that I must do, be and have? And why?'

Reviews

Acute and powerful...

—— Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul

Brilliant... I found myself rethinking nearly everything about a life that I thought I knew and believed to be true

—— Deirdre Bair, author of Anais Nin: A Biography

In this brilliant, absorbing work, Hillman dares us to believe that we are each meant to be here; that we are needed by the world around us

—— Publishers Weekly

Achingly poignant... This is a novel of quiet beauty, vividly evoking the magnitude of childhood loss and the capacity for hope

—— Stephanie Merritt , Observer

A bright, bittersweet novel

—— Evening Standard, *Summer Reads of 2022*

I loved Amy and Lan: the way parents mess up their children's lives is heartbreaking yet beautifully conveyed. I've long been a Sadie Jones fan but this may be her best yet. Poignant, compelling and brilliant

—— Mary Lawson, author of A TOWN CALLED SOLACE

Alive with the wonders of seasonal changes and the thrum of farm life, Amy and Lan will make you cry. Complex, beautifully written and true. I loved this book

—— Monique Roffey, author of THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH

Compelling... [Jones] doesn't disappoint with this intermittently joyous but affecting portrait of childhood

—— i

Jones brilliantly ventriloquises Amy and her best friend Lan... She conveys their passionate attachment to the freedom of their unconventional upbringing and deep connection to nature

—— Guardian, *Summer Reads of 2022*

Sadie Jones is a consummate novelist of the modern family, in all its mess, cruelties, loyalties, treacheries and tragedies. This child's eye perspective on the 21st century attempt at the Good Life is topical, comical and horrifying. I read it heart in mouth

—— Amanda Craig, author of THE GOLDEN RULE

An enthralling, original novel: utterly convincing

—— Richard Mabey

A send-up of rural nostalgia and a comedy of manners combined with a thoughtful, genuine desire to understand the motives behind this 'better' way of life... By capturing specific moments in each season as the years pass, Jones beautifully conveys the sensual, almost bacchanalian glory of hay-making; the excitement of deep snow drifts in winter

—— Catherine Taylor , Financial Times

A gentle but engaging read, Jones captures the beautiful simplicity and enduring hardships of farm life, painting a timely portrait of agriculture in a capitalist society... Beautifully written

—— Yorkshire Post

The novel unfolds over five years as a series of evocative vignettes, with a pulse of jeopardy in the pair's uneasy sense of adult tensions

—— Anthony Cummins , Irish Mail, 'The Best New Fiction'

Enchanting, funny and layered in pathos... Sadie Jones' unusual take on the rural dream is a gift of a book

—— Sarah Langford, author of IN YOUR DEFENCE

A magnificent achievement. So honest, so thorough and so well written, both Angela's search for truth and this book are about the deepest possible experience of transmitted collective/personal trauma.

—— Pamela Steiner, EdD, Senior Fellow, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health and author of Collective Trauma and the Armenian Genocide

Angela Findlay has written a brave and unflinchingly honest exploration of the complex legacy of her German grandfather's activities as a top-ranking Wehrmacht officer in WW2. Her book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the far-reaching impact of transgenerational memory, shame or trauma, and a moving testament to the personal and collective value of reckoning with the past.

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—— Rebecca Abrams, author of The Jewish Journey: 4000 Years in 22 Objects and Licoricia of Wincheste

Fascinating ... and extremely courageous work.

—— The Lady

Scull delivers a remarkable history of psychiatry. The final section is a devastatingly effective chronicle of the rise of psychopharmacology and its tendency to regard all mental illnesses as potentially treatable with the right medication. This sweeping and comprehensive survey is an impressive feat

—— Publishers Weekly

A carefully researched history of psychiatry, it provides a critical assessment of the psychiatric enterprise. In the rush to find cures for psychiatric illnesses, Scull believes that there has been a disappointing lack of focus on patients

—— Psychiatric News

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