How do we comfort each other and ourselves in an age of disbelief? The historian and Booker Prize-nominated novelist has pieced together a series of clues in a timely, moving and profound exploration of how writers, composers and artists have sought solace in the face of loss, tragedy and crisis. From the books of Job and the Psalms to Albert Camus, Anna Akhmatova and Primo Levi, Ignatieff shows in On Consolation how men and women in extreme situations have looked to each other through time to regain hope and resilience. He talks to Claire Armitstead, Associate Editor, Culture, for the Guardian.