TLS Books lands Baddiel’s ‘funny and incisive’ take on atheism

David Baddiel’s “funny and incisive” take on atheism, The God Desire, has been signed by TLS Books. 

Publishing director Myles Archibald acquired world language rights on behalf of TLS Books from Georgia Garrett at RCW. The God Desire will be published in hardback, e-book and audio and will be read by the author on 13th April 2023.

In The God Desire, Baddiel argues that it is the very intensity of his, and everyone else’s, desire for God to exist that proves his non-existence. Anything so deeply wished-for we will make real, considers Baddiel.

Archibald described the book as a “funny, incisive look at the question why God exists, rather than does God exist?" and hailed Baddiel "as the new voice in non-fiction".

Baddiel commented: “One of the things that Jews Don’t Count outlined was how anti-Semitism is racism, not religious intolerance, because I’m an atheist, but that would have got me no free passes out of Auschwitz.

“The God Desire expands on that: on what it means to be a member of a minority associated with religion, and yet an atheist. It begins from the perspective that many people’s identities, including mine, are deeply intertwined with religion. It is an atheist polemic but one that – hopefully – understands and engages with the hard-wired need that humans have for some version of God in their lives. It is perhaps the first-ever atheist polemic, in fact, that includes a love of God. It’s also got a fair amount of jokes.”