Almost Happy

The modern notion of happiness – a state of constant joy when ticking off the shopping list of life, including marriage, children and a career – is a tricky one: Either it is unattainable, or it does not lead to the expected fulfilment. Instead, we need to make sense of our life journey on our own terms. And at its crossroads we feel most alive and encounter our true selves. Rather than mourning the lover we did not kiss or the path we did not take, this book celebrates the Almost Happy of such encounters.


In 12 short stories accompanied by personal essays, Ella Voss takes us on a wild journey of soul-searching. She makes us walk beside a panther in New York and encounter Gaudí in Barcelona. Her journey takes us from India to Paris to Bali, to the deepest abyss of the human soul and back.