Why Not?

A long leering look at the meaning of life, with a voice like Nick Hornby’s and smarts all its own.

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Featured on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE $60,000 HILARY WESTON WRITERS' TRUST PRIZE FOR NONFICTION

Longlisted for the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction.

"Clear-eyed ... Robertson is no stranger to confronting unsavoury truths."—Steven Beattie, That Shakespearean Rag

"Many of us sense that the world has too many moving parts and can become utterly defeated. Ray Robertson found a 'road back' in this splendid and intriguing book." —Jim Harrison

Shortly after completing his sixth novel, Ray Robertson suffered a depression of suicidal intensity. Soon after his recover, he decided to try and answer two of the biggest questions we can ask. What makes humans happy? And what makes a life worth living?

His answers aren’t what you might expect from a mental illness memoir—but they’re exactly what you’d expect from Ray Robertson. With the vitality of Nick Hornby and a brashness all his own, Robertson runs his hands over life, death, intoxication, and art. Unashamedly working-class and unabashedly literary, Why Not? is a rolling, rocking, anti-Sisyphean odyssey.

Ray Robertson is the celebrated author of eight books and six novels, including What Happened Later, about Jack Kerouac's last years. He lives and writes in Toronto, Ontario.