A tremendous thing: friendship from the Iliad to the Internet

Friendship encompasses a wide range of social bonds, from playground companionship and wartime camaraderie to modern marriages and Facebook links.

For many, friendship is more meaningful than familial ties, but it is our least codified relationship, with no legal standing or bureaucratic definition.

In this book, Gregory Jusdanis explores the sometimes contradictory nature of friendship and friendship in art, finding a compelling link between our need for friends and our engagement with fiction.

Both necessitate the possibility of entering invented worlds, of reading the minds of others, and of learning to live with people.