In this new collection of poemshis most philosophically probing and poetically revealing to dateDurs Grünbein takes us on a spiritual journey through the labyrinthine cosmos of the human soul and its manifold embodiments across the ages. Addressing us in his own voice as well as through the prisms of Seneca, Augustine, Descartes, Spinoza, Pascal, Malebranche, Vermeer, and others, Grünbein subtly and lovingly traces the paradoxes of creaturelinessits joys and sufferings, its resilience and fragilityto remind us of the "mortal diamond from the hands of nature" that is life.