Ten Eternal Questions by Zoe Sallis is a book which I have recently found in the old book market and read it in a day; such interesting this book is! Before anyone jumps to any of the possible conclusions, let me clear the air myself and announce that Ten Eternal Questions is a non-fictional work, in fact, a rather right-to-life book which poses the questions to different celebrated personalities in the different fields and seeks their answers. The author, Zoe Sallis, who was born in India and educated in England and then settled in a different place, has interviewed many people for her book. Some of them are – Nelson Mandela, Amos Gitai, Zac Goldsmith, Jilly Cooper, Paulo Coelho, Robert Fisk, Bono, Dadi Janki and many others.

Ten Eternal Questions that the book poses to people are:

What is your concept of God?
Is there anything like the afterlife?
What’s the concept of Karma?
What’s your moral code?
Do you believe in destiny’s idea?
What has life taught you so far?
What words of wisdom would you like to offer to your closed ones?
Do you think human survival on planet earth is under threat?
What is the thing, person or etc that you admire most in the world?
How do you find peace within yourself?

And I believe these questions are important for anyone of us. Reading the thoughts of different people is a wonderful experience and that becomes even exciting and pleasant as well as insightful when coming from the great ones like Mandela, Dalai Lama, and Janki. Some important statements that I will surely like to share with my readers were found in the book. To begin with, Paulo Coelho, the famous author, thinks that ‘every breath is a prayer’. And for Zac Goldsmith, ‘the living world, the planet, is a miracle of God’. And the best on God comes from none other than Mandela himself:

“Whether you are religious or not, if you don’t take that into account you will make serious mistakes.”

When asked about destiny, Harry Dean Stanton, the legendary American actor, believes that everything is predestined. He goes on, “Nobody’s in charge, it’s all just a huge miraculous manifestation.” Whereas Sophia Loren, the legendary Italian actress, believes that our actions are responsible for our destiny.

To conclude and cut short, everything in this book is wonderful, thought-provoking and also well-presented. Zoe Sallis has done a wonderful work in this book as she has offered a chance to the readers to read the answers to these immortal questions by famous people at once place – well-documented and well presented. I will recommend this book to anyone who wants to read something refreshing and aside from the fiction. Give it a Sunday or a Saturday, you will never forget reading it. Amazing book and amazing idea, Zoe! Thanks for such wonderful pocket-magic!

Review by: Staff at FeaturedBooks