46 pages • 1 hour read
The Comfort Book
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
Published in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Matt Haig’s The Comfort Book presents anecdotes, bits of historical and biographical insight, mantras, affirmations, and advice tailored to bringing readers comfort in times of need. Haig, the author of several works of both fiction and nonfiction, also draws on his personal experiences with mental illness, which he discusses in detail in Reasons to Stay Alive (2015).
Content Warning: The Comfort Book contains references to suicidal ideation, sexual abuse, the Holocaust, antisemitism, and slavery.
Summary
The book consists of four parts and includes chapters of various formats and lengths, such as recipes, process analyses, lists, and terse, standalone quotations. The irregularity of the book’s structure mirrors the irregularity and diversity of comfort and of the healing process. It need not be read from beginning to end but is designed so anyone can pick it up during a moment of despair and flip to any page to find words of comfort.
Part 1 deals with readers’ essential humanness. Haig stresses that people do not need to achieve anything to be worthy of existence. He introduces the subject of suffering and points out that hardships can be overcome by simply walking in a straight line. Haig discusses the power of the mind and the idea that “the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it” (12).
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