"Philosophers have the infuriating habit of analyzing questions instead of answering them," writes Terry Eagleton, who, however, in these pages poses the most important question that concerns everyone and attempts to answer it.

Is there an answer to the question "What is the meaning of life"? Or is the question entirely fabricated? In this spiritual and humorous exploration, Eagleton shows how thinkers and writers throughout the centuries, such as Shakespeare, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Jean-Paul Sartre, Samuel Beckett, and the ancient Tragedians, approached the issue; he reveals how the question of "the meaning of life" became problematic in our postmodern times; and how, instead of examining the lack of meaning in our lives, we fill them with all kinds of substitutes: from sex, football, and lifestyle to various religions and fundamentalism.

In the book, we also learn how a jazz orchestra can enlighten us on the subject...