The One and the Ninety-Nine is here.
Three years and two children in the making — the most vulnerable thing I've ever written is finally out in the world.
Friends,
The book that I’ve poured myself into for the past three years—through the birth of two children!—is finally out. The One and the Ninety-Nine is about relationships, and more specifically the quest for real communion in a fractured age.
If you have not already, you can buy the book today: The One and the Ninety-Nine: Forging Identity in the Age of Social Contagion. If you’ve already bought it — thank you. Genuinely.
And one real favor: If you buy the book from an online retailer, will you pleaes leave a review? It’s the single most useful thing you can do for a book. It doesn’t have to be long — three sentences is plenty: what it’s about, what it did or didn’t do for you, who you’d hand it to. Reviews are how a book finds readers beyond the people who already know the author, and the early ones genuinely shape its direction. They matter more than most people realize — more than I’d like to admit.
Thank you.
Yours,
Luke
P.S. If you’d rather help another way — a post, a forward, a word to a friend who’d love it — that means a great deal too.
“Social contagion is the most important phenomenon of our time. The One and the Ninety-Nine is the place to go to learn about it.”
―Tyler Cowen, author of The Complacent Class
"Fascinating. A very well written and conceived book."
―Sebastian Junger, author of Tribe
“Luke Burgis shares a story of tragedy and loss, and how it led to a life of compassion and hope. The One and the Ninety-Nine is a guide to living with virtue in the hardest circumstances, and finding deep joy.”
―Arthur C. Brooks, Harvard professor and #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Luke Burgis takes his title from the Lord's parable of the shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine to seek the one lost sheep―and builds from this an urgent case for why, in an age that dissolves us into the crowd or subsumes us into the cruelty of the mob, an individual, unrepeatable person matters infinitely. This is a humane, learned and courageous retrieval of an essential personalism that is necessary reading for our technological age."
―Bishop Robert Barron
“Burgis shows us how to resist the siren call of false identification, which targets us every moment of every day from all our devices. Joining his own experience to the testimony of the ages, he reveals how we discover our true selves in a personal response to the call of the good and the beautiful."
―Michael Clune, author of Pan
Here are what some early readers have had to say:
“Me or we? Both. I’ve learned so much from Luke Burgis and his new book The One and the Ninety-Nine. The solid self, he says, is knowing who you are as an individual while also being connected to and shaped by your community. Amen, amen!
―Angela Duckworth, author of Grit
“A book about the problem beneath all our other problems: how to become a person capable of truth, courage, and belonging in a culture that dissolves all three. Burgis manages to be both humane and unflinchingly honest, which is not only rare, but invaluable.”
―Katherine Dee, internet culture reporter
"One of this year's most important books. [Burgis is] training people to shun conformity and resist totalitarianism. Absolute must-read!"
―Rod Dreher, author of Living in Wonder
“The One and the Ninety-Nine is nothing short of courageous. Luke Burgis has risked much in his boldness of form and content, in making it personal. In a time when the stakes could hardly be higher, this book could lead you to great rewards. Take it personally.”
―Andrew McLuhan, founder of the McLuhan Institute
"The strength of the team is the self. The strength of the self is the team. Burgis shows you how to be authentically yourself and consider the impact you're having on others so you can do your best work and build your strongest relationships.”
―Kim Scott, author Radical Candor and Radical Respect
"The One and the Ninety-Nine is an ambitious, illuminating book, wherein its insights about perception, rites of passage, and the personal character of life, are mirrored in its form―through 'probes,' interconnected 'thresholds,' and more. Most books in this genre remain at the level of head-knowledge, but Burgis achieves something more ambitious―a book of ideas that operates at the level of perception, and the heart."
―Jordan Castro, novelist
“Developing a healthy truth-seeking identity in an age of both isolation and digital saturation based on tribal identities is rapidly becoming a core issue for young people. The One and the Ninety-Nine is a guide for both individuals and parents on how to foster one through healthy relationships.”
―Michael Strong, founder of the Socratic Experience, author of The Habit of Thought and Be the Solution
“A warm, wonderful account of how to develop a healthy self―based in community―for the age of digital distraction. It combines personal reflections from key transitions with longer-term principles on how to live a satisfying life.”
―Magatte Wade, entrepreneur and author of The Heart of the Cheetah
“The One and the Ninety-Nine offers a compelling exploration of how to develop a healthier sense of self in an age of social contagion and fragmented identities. A timely and much-needed book.”
―Anne-Laure Le Cunff, neuroscientist and author of Tiny Experiments
“I never hesitate to recommend a Luke Burgis book! His wisdom is hard won, and The One and the Ninety-Nine immerses readers in the task of unpacking the complex and nuanced truths that require that we live better than we did before we read it. Because of Burgis' book, communal interdependence may return to public discourse, and the high calling of a life of virtue once again appears reachable.”
―Jessica Hooten Wilson, Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University, and author of The Scandal of Holiness
"Highly readable and entertaining... This book should be read by anyone interested in understanding one of the most fundamental dilemmas of the human predicament: how to balance individualism against sociability in our increasingly fragmented and anonymous mass societies."
―Joseph P. Forgas, DPhil, DSc. (Oxford), Scientia Professor, University of New south Wales
"The One and the Ninety-Nine pushes us to think past the idea of belonging as an end in itself."
―Mere Orthodoxy