The Gift brilliantly argues for the importance of creativity in our increasingly money-driven society. Reaching deep into literature, anthropology and psychology for striking examples, the heart of Lewis Hyde's modern masterpiece is the simple and important idea that a 'gift' can inspire and change our lives, art and culture.

Lewis Hyde has been championed by some of the greatest artists of our time. He addresses the questions we face every day in our public and private lives.

'A masterpiece. The Gift is the best book I know of for the aspiring young, for talented but unacknowledged creators, or even for those who have achieved material success and are worried that this means they've sold out. It gets at the core of their dilemma: how to maintain yourself alive in a world of money, when the essential part of what you do cannot be bought or sold' - Margaret Atwood

'Reminds us of our cultural gifts and our responsibilities to them. a manifesto of sorts. In a climate where we know the price of everything and the value of nothing, Lewis Hyde offers us an account of those few, essential aspects of human experience that transcend commodity, or that will do so, if you let them' - Zadie Smith