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David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God

A spiritual meditation on his music and creativity

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David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God

By: Peter Ormerod
Narrated by: Chris Bianchi
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Bloomsbury presents David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God by Peter Ormerod, read by Chris Bianchi

The story of how David Bowie's search for meaning inspired him to write the music that defined a generation.

In this wide-ranging biography, Peter Ormerod explores the quest for spirituality that powered David Bowie's creativity from his earliest recordings to his death-defying final album. Bowie’s genre-expanding, era-crossing genius had an extraordinary impact on popular culture but his life-long search for spiritual truth and enlightenment has been overlooked.

From Bowie's first musical encounters as a choirboy, this book traces his spiritual obsessions over the years. As a young musician at the start of his career, he was enraptured by Tibetan Buddhism. It was the first step in a spiritual journey that would generate his most profound lyrics and music. From the Kabbalah-influenced tracks of Station to Station to Ziggy Stardust's messiah complex and the profound affinity between Heroes and Christian thought, Ormerod sheds new light on the spiritual traditions behind Bowie's genius.

Taking Bowie’s spiritual explorations and faith seriously, Ormerod shows us how this quest for meaning propelled him through his darkest moments and biggest successes, lending his music a timelessness and depth that has spoken to so many people across the world. Whether experiencing a dark night of the soul in LA during his occult phase or reciting the Lord's prayer in front of thousands of concertgoers, Bowie was always searching for that universal truth that lies beyond everyday reality.©2026 Peter Ormerod (P)2026 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Entertainment & Celebrities Music Spirituality
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Critic reviews

Ormerod has written one of the best and most original books of those published to mark a decade since Bowie’s death from cancer in January 2016... The Bowie you thought you knew is recast completely. (Helen Barrett)
Ormerod deals with Bowie as text; as the occasion for close reading, which I think is what his work, like all good art, deserves. By the end Ormerod had me singing in the choir with him. (Simon Critchley)
A fresh and revealing look at a much celebrated artist.
Peter Ormerod’s book is a monumental, compelling, and profoundly original study of David Bowie’s spiritual and religious ideas, inspirations and meditations. Bowie always had a search for meaning at the centre of his music. There was a spiritual muse which both grounded his ideas and guided the way to a transcendent realm, more real than the mundane suburbia of his younger days. For anyone whose life was transformed by Bowie’s music, or who wishes to gain an understanding of the deeper ramifications of Bowie’s ideas, then this wonderful book is essential reading.
Who knew we needed another Bowie book? This thoughtful deep dive into the artist’s spiritual curiosity traces how faith, mysticism and doubt shapes his music.
What Ormerod provides here is a welcome addition to the heaving Bowie library. This search for enlightenment is patently what gives [Bowie's] music that otherworldly power. (Martin Robinson)
Insightful, thoughtful and engaging, David Bowie and the Search for Life, Death and God enriches our understanding of Bowie’s art by placing faith, doubt and transcendence at its core.
Ormerod so ably demonstrates...that “in searching for God, Bowie made art that shook the world and changed lives. (Peter Carty)
Of the recent glut of Bowie books, this one about the rock star’s spiritual journey is the most intriguing.
Peter Ormerod’s book is the first to approach the musician’s career from a perspective that Bowie himself believed was crucial to his work: his spirituality.’
Monumental.
A wild journey...unique.
A highly readable biographical overview.
Ormerod lovingly traces all the seams and wrinkles of spirituality present in Bowie’s music.
All stars
Most relevant
I never quite knew what drew me so deeply to David Bowie. It was never just the music, there was always something more, something "seen through a mirror, dimly,” but never fully revealed.

This book helped me make sense of that persistent pull, and I finally feel as though I’ve completed a search I didn’t know I was on.

Incredible book and a testament to the author.

Fantastic Voyage

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This is just the book you need to read. It brings to life exactly what I thought David Bowie was like but also includes extra snippings about him

What an incredible man

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I very nearly gave up on this after the first chapter, as it does that now seemingly inescapable introductory method of authorial insertion into a biographical study, when the reader is here for the subject and nothing else.

An author's motivation is implicit in the content and the telling, and I can only hope this annoying trope ends as it seems to be a facet of every single biographical work in recent years.

Once past the author wittering on about himself and Bowie's impact, it becomes a very interesting, well written and compelling work that adds a genuinely new dimension to the innumerable discourses on his ideas, obsessions and output. Seemingly disparate elements of Bowie's oeuvre are pulled together in a convincing and well argued manner, and the narration is excellent throughout.

Fantastic Voyage

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Beautifully written and justified. Just finished (absolutely adored the narration as well; the words, the spirit, the intensity of the book perfectly realised in the warmth and integrity of the voice).

God works through so many things to bring hope and meaning. Bowie and this book have brought these things to me today and at various times from 1980 to the present day. So thank you ever so much David, Peter and Chris x

Profound

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This was an interesting aspect of David Bowie’s spiritual beliefs and how they influenced his creativity and music. I now listen to his lyrics and hear something quite different and very special.
The narration is excellent.
I loved listening to this book.

So insightful

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