Nothing – Jane Teller – Urban Philosophers

“Nothing matters. From the moment you are born, you start to die. The earth is 4.6 billion years old. You’ll live to be a maximum of one hundred. Life isn’t worth the bother …”

So says Pierre Anthon when he decides that life has no meaning, leaves his class room to sit in a tree at his parents’ front garden, and refuses to come down. His friends scramble to prove that there is a meaning to life by piling up whatever in life they prize. But as the heap of meaning grows, they realize that they cannot give up what matters most. Soon they are fighting, as the sacrifices turn more and more extreme and the costs become unbearable.

After initially being banned, NOTHING has gradually become a prize-winning international bestseller, hailed by critics as a new classic, translated into more than 30 languages (new ones continuously being added), and sold in over 1.5 million copies worldwide. NOTHING has been staged at more than 100 theatres throughout the world, and in 2016 the book was made into a new original opera in a joint venture between Glyndebourne and London Royal Opera.