My Unwritten Books

In this work, George Steiner tells of seven books which he did not write. Because intimacies and indiscretions were too threatening. Because the topic brought too much pain. Because its emotional or intellectual challenge proved beyond his capacities.
The actual themes range widely and defy conventional taboos: the torment of the gifted when they live among the very great; the experience of sex in different languages; the claims of Zionism; a more intense love for animals than for human beings; the costly privilege of exile; a theology of emptiness. With a bracing honesty Steiner reaches beyond his erudition and beyond rationality alone to show us "unicorns in the garden of reason," whether considering Chinese scholarship or envy, political self-identification or passion.
And a unifying perception underlies the diversity of My Unwritten Books. The best we have or can produce is only the tip of the iceberg. Behind every good book, as in a lit shadow, lies the book which remained unwritten, the one that would have failed better.