Lapidarium VI

About the Book

Lapidarium VI is the sixth and final volume of the cycle, published in 2007 — the year of Ryszard Kapuściński’s death. It gathers aphorisms, notes and reflections from the author’s last years and is often read as his intellectual testament.

In this part the ultimate themes resound with particular force: transience, the approach of death, the reckoning of a life, and the question of what we leave behind. Kapuściński — with the detachment and calm of a man who has lived and seen much — shares thoughts on the value of existence, on memory, and on the spiritual heritage one passes on to the generations that follow.

Like the whole cycle, this volume can be read from any point, fragment by fragment. It brings to a close one of the author’s most personal undertakings — a notebook kept over many years, in which the great reporter, alongside his great books about the world, also set down his private wisdom. Lapidarium VI is the farewell voice of an observer who remained, to the very end, curious about the world and about humankind.

Themes

• Final thoughts
• The approach of death
• The value of an extraordinary life
• The spiritual legacy left behind

Significance

The intellectual testament of a great observer of the world.

See Also

• Lapidarium VI — Polish editions and ISBN numbers.