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Life

Cave on stage in London, 28 August 2022. Jim Dyson/Getty

This summer, I watched Nick Cave and his band play a London festival, says Dorian Lynskey in UnHerd. “It was the best I’d ever seen them.” I only realised why after reading his memoir Faith, Hope and Carnage, in which he discusses the death of his 15-year-old son Arthur seven years ago. Art has given him a means of “connecting with the suffering of others in order to feel less alone”. When people ask him: “Does it ever get better?” he replies: “Yes. We become different. We become better.” The loss of his son was “an annihilation of the self”, but also an opportunity to be remade. He focuses less on the world’s hardships, and more on its “humility, mercy and mystery”. A more emotional and communal artist simply has more to give their audience. “His suffering was an opportunity for resurrection.”