In the counter-cultural 60s and 70s, young people abandoned suffocating norms and expectations to travel the world and live life on their own terms. That has the pleasing ring of nostalgia to it, but not all of it was peace and love, how could it be?

Three generations of women, as well as the eccentric men in their orbit, struggle with past mistakes and moral failure when the pendulum of change reverses course. Alice, Alix and Louise each live their own version of the Western world’s cultural swing from hippiedom to the state of the world as we know it today. Offering at the Altar of Impermanence is a story with unexpected twists and turns, that threads enchanting and unsettling detail into a multi-voiced, fascinating narrative and, at the same time, offers a philosophical, rear mirror-view of the experience of ‘self’ and spirituality in an ever-changing world.

This one of a kind novel takes the reader on a journey, embarking on a road trip from Amsterdam to Afghanistan to a surprise reunion and an era-defining picture of the Manhattan skyline in September 2001.

Illustrated by the author with artwork that serve as a hallucinatory accompaniment of this turn-of-the-century cautionary tale.

OFFERING AT THE ALTAR
OF IMPERMANENCE

OFFERING AT THE ALTAROF IMPERMANENCE

A novel by Astrid Bant

OFFERING AT THE ALTAR
OF IMPERMANENCE