Lila
by Robert M. Pirsig

Zen and the Art of the Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig’s worldwide bestseller, holds a unique and unforgettable place in modern Western literature. Now in Lila, he brings us a new voyage, a poignant journey and a passionate philosophical exploration.

Phaedrus – a character familiar to readers of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – is sailing down the Hudson River when he meets Lila Blewitt, an unapologetically sexual, psychologically unstable woman whom a mutual friend warns him against. But Phaedrus is drawn to her physically, and interested in her intellectually, finding her “a culture of one” in whom he discerns an unexpected “Quality”. Sailing with him to Manhattan, where her mental state deteriorates further, Lila prompts Phaedrus to explore conflicts of values, such as those between Native Americans and Europeans, or between the insane and the normal. Finally, after years of struggling, he formulates his “Metaphysics of Quality”, which offers a system of understanding – and evaluating – actions according to a hierarchy of four evolutionary realms (natural, biological, social and intellectual). Lila remains elusive to Phaedrus’s penetrating intellect, and her destiny remains a mystery, but Pirsig’s wide-ranging philosophical explorations will provoke and engage readers in the memorable experience of pursuing the journey started by Pirsig in the 1970s to its final end.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was like a first child. Maybe that will always be the best-loved one. But this second child is the bright one. I think a lot of people will argue with some of the ideas in Lila. There may be controversy. But if people are still reading these two books a hundred years from now, I predict Lila will be the one they consider the more important." Robert M. Pirsig

ISBN: 1-84688-011-4, Paperback, £7.99, 472 pp.
Publication Date: Aug 2006

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