I recently finished reading storyteller and essayist Elif Shafak’s book How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division. It my style that before reading book or during the book I also want to know the life of writer or the condition surrounding him he remained or we can say his/her affiliation, attachment, professional life. Because I believe when you read his or her work it helps a lot to understand the book, by knowing writer we know better his work. So, let’s start what I learned and understand from the book. The book was published by Wellcome Collection last year. The book How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division is neither a novel nor a poetry book rather it is a non-fiction book; discussion or writers’ perspective and we can also call it a thought-provoking commentary on being a sane in an insane society. Writer’s overall idea is that this age is the age of contagious, anxiety therefore we feel overwhelming by the events around us, by injustice, by suffering, by an endless feeling of crisis. So, how can we nurture the parts of ourselves that hope, trust and believe in something better. And how can we stay sane in this age of division. The book How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division is neither a novel nor a poetry book, rather it is a non-fiction book; a discussion or writers’ perspective and we can also call it a thought-provoking commentary on being sane in an insane society Most interesting part in this book is, writer discussed his personal life experiences, occurrences his sweet and bitter feelings with his knowledge and wisdom. She divided the book in segments but before book starts there is profile of Elif Shafak on first page then she starts book Intro from her life in Istanbul where she felt others people pain resembles hers and discuss routine life of common people and highlights uncommon event in their life. She discussed pandemic which changed the life of human being. She went to discuss to the loneliness of people their empty souls, their cries. In this Intro segment her sole discussion is that we must hear each other’s. She shared someone’s thought that “there is no greater agony then bearing an untold story inside you”. Further stated that “the moment we stop listening to diverse opinions is also when we stop learning. Then She came to the topic “DISILLUSIONMENT AND BBEWILDERMENT”. Here she discusses the Biotech and Artificial Intelligence interference in human life and work and erupt complications of human life. She quotes Antonio Gramsci and Erich Fromm and discuss their work for society. She quotes Fromm and says “the collective narcissism at times cloaked itself in nationalism. At other times, it camouflaged as religious narcissism, when believers doggedly held conviction that members of their faith were dearer to God. By blaming social media and digital communication she charged for accelerated and heightened group narcissism. Then She came on ANXIETY: She pointed out most use of word in our daily life “Crisis” everywhere we hear this word commonly therefore she discusses that the truth is there are lot of negative sentiments all around and within us-anger, fear, discontent, distrust, sadness, suspicious, constant and self-doubt, all these emotions part of our life and the viral posts on digital space also frightened us. Seven days a week we are forced to contend with bleak feelings. All of this has major impact on our mental health she described. Then she picked topic ANGER: She take anger positively. She says what is wrong with our anger especially justified anger. She explains positive anger with agitation in America and all over the world on the murder of Gorge Floyd black man by Police. She also quotes from “The Grapes of Wrath” novel when a character describes suffering and says, “I am just pain covered with Skin”. So, we are pain and hurt and loneliness covered with skin. So, we should get angry. Next of her topic is Apathy: She explains apathy tranquil most pernicious emotion. It’s of combination of many emotions; anxiety, disillusionment, bewilderment, fatigue, resentment-mix them fast and hard and we in pervasive paralysis, lack of feeling, numbness. Here she came again on question “how do we simultaneously remain engaged and mange to remain sane? -She concludes the book with her wise and detail answer by closing topic: INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM: She defines that we live in age of too much information, less knowledge and even less wisdom. That ratio needs to be reversed. We need less information, more knowledge and much more wisdom. She further defines that knowledge require readings, and there is wisdom, which connects the mind and the heart, activates emotional intelligence, expands empathy. For that we need stories and storytelling. A world without empathy, would be a much more divided and lonelier place to exist. Fix the inequalities and end the discriminations, and choose earnest wisdom over snippets of information, choose empathy over hatred, choose humanism over tribalism, yet we don’t have much time or room for error while we are losing our planet, our only home. After the pandemic, we won’t go back to the way things were before. And we shouldn’t. “What we call the beginning is often the end…the end is where we start from”. Here she ends the book. This book is very useful in the context of human unity, to cover all mentally illness what human has got in this time. This book is very important particularly for our generation in Pakistan where we are divided in groups, where our people trapped in Cultural and religious narcissism. In this powerful, uplifting plea for conscious optimism, Booker Prize-nominated novelist and activist Elif Shafak draws on her own memories and delves into the power of stories to bring us together. The writer is a development professional and can be reached at khadim_soomro@hotmail.com