International bestseller Alain de Botton was born in Zurich, Switzerland. He is a writer of books on love, travel, architecture, and literature, with a style described as “philosophy of everyday life.” His first book, Essays in Love, published when he was twenty-three, and was followed with How Proust Can Change Your Life, The Architecture of Happiness, Religion for Atheists, Art as Therapy, and many more. His newest book, The News: A User’s Manual is a thought-provoking look at the manic and peculiar position that news has achieved in our lives.
Adam Gopnik has been writing for The New Yorker since 1986, having written a variety of fiction, humor, book reviews, profiles, and more than a hundred stories for “The Talk of the Town” and “Comment.” With a background in Art History and a sophisticated perspective on culture, he is a trusted and popular voice on many subjects. His novels include, Paris to the Moon, High & Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture, The King in the Window, and Through the Children’s Gate: A Home in New York.