Talking of Michelangelo: Meditations on doubt, struggle and fulfilment

It's taken almost all my life to change into someone who's aware, who listens, who's forgiven himself, who has an idea of what love means. The process has been exhausting - like melting yourself down in a furnace and pouring your elements into a new mould.

Talking of Michelangelo is an insightful memoir and moving philosophical reflection on a life lived among great men and for the benefit of others. The title, inspired by the line in T.S. Eliot's poem 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', gently weaves together Prufrock's sense of not belonging with the quiet struggles of John Harry's early life.

A story of ambition and regret, triumph and failure, it unfolds as a conversation with a close childhood friend, wine in hand, at John's home in the foothills of an ancient mountain range in Victoria. Tracing his lifelong search for meaning and connection, John questions who he is and what his hard-fought, adventurous, contradictory and often disconnected life has meant.

Inviting readers into this honest, intimate dialogue, John faces his past and the precariousness of life. From the prison-scape of his boarding school to chasing Michelangelo's masterpieces across Europe, John admits existential doubt while holding onto the belief that even in the face of absurdity, humanity can find faith in love, creativity and one another.

Vulnerable and profound, Talking of Michelangelo reveals hard-won truths and what it means to be human. For anyone who has ever questioned the meaning of existence and what a good life might be, Talking of Michelangelo is one man's thoughtful answer - and John Harry's enduring legacy.