Sen’s account of his childhood is more attuned to the ideas he imbibed and the times he lived through. The inner life is eschewed for the world outside. A remark on female classmates will trigger Sen to reflect on gender inequality in India, instead of, say, memories of playground pranks and crushes. The portraits of his parents and grandparents are persuasive about their accomplishments and political opinions, not so much about their private hopes and regrets...But then again, to expect the pleasures of a memoir from this early intellectual autobiography is perhaps misguided. Whatever Sen lacks in emotional intricacies, he more than makes up for with his scholarly reveries and social insights.

... [a] warmhearted, clear-eyed account of the formative years of his life, a book that reaches from Myanmar to Berkeley and that is less about economic theories—or his own later achievements in the field—than about the contours of an early intellectual journey across multiple continents.

Mr. Sen’s gentle memoir is studded with recollections of this sort, little episodes that shed light on the distant nooks of a long life of distinction.

Sen brings out the full journey of the flowering of the academic intellectual we know.

Charting diverse influences—Gandhi to Rabindranath Tagore to Wittgenstein to Adam Smith—Sen reiterates that his intellectual proclivities have always spilled beyond narrow disciplinary confines. And if Sen’s life of contrasts has been 'dizzying' at times, his autobiography suggests an enduring commitment to intellectual work with social purpose..

A vivid memoir, recommended for those interested in the intersection of economics and social science..

... a moving, heartfelt memoir.

... quietly captivating.