Nova Ars Vivendi
The New Art of Living
Practical non-fiction for people who take their lives seriously enough to design them.
The New Art of Living
Practical non-fiction for people who take their lives seriously enough to design them.
We publish in series. Each is written under its own name and lives on its own site, but all of them come from this house and hold to the same standard. Three are in print and online now. More will follow when they are ready, not before.
A practical philosophy for the examined life, in twelve manuals. The premise is simple: no one hands us instructions for the body, the inherited mind, relationships, meaning, suffering or mortality, so we improvise, mostly badly. These books are the manuals their author went looking for and could not find. Evidence where there is evidence, honest uncertainty where there is not, and no patience for the wellness industry. LIVE comes first; the rest follow at their own pace, each built to stand on its own.
An operating system for the long marriage, written for couples who have read the relationship books, understood the principles, and then watched Monday happen. Not theory: named protocols, word-for-word scripts, and weekly routines you can use tonight. Built on the research of Gottman, Johnson, Nagoski and Rosenberg, but for people who need to know what to do, not what to study. Each volume targets a specific situation, from staying seriously married to rebuilding after betrayal.
One great thinker, one hundred pages, one clear use. Each volume takes a major mind and distils the ideas that actually change how you live, stripped of jargon and academic gatekeeping. Philosophy you can read in an evening and apply the next morning. Marcus Aurelius, Nietzsche and Socrates lead the series, with more thinkers to follow.
New series arrive when an argument is worth a shelf of its own, not before. Each one waits until it has something a reader cannot find better said elsewhere.
If you want to know when the next book lands, the post is the only place we say so.
Get the postA NAV book does not exist to join a conversation. It exists because the conversation was missing something useful. Three things hold true of every one we put a cover on.
Nothing reaches print on the strength of a good idea alone. Each book is the residue of something lived through, argued with, and found to actually work.
These are working books, meant to be marked up, returned to, and acted on, not admired once and shelved. Clarity over cleverness, every time.
Each book is exactly as long as its subject demands and not a page longer. We would rather you finish one than feel you ought to start it.
Nova Ars Vivendi is an independent publishing house for people who take their lives seriously enough to design them. We publish for educated adults who have read everything, tried most of it, and can tell a useful book from a loud one.
Not guru-speak. Not algorithmic wellness. Not another memoir with a takeaway bolted on. The most under-served shelf in publishing is the one labelled usefulness for grown-ups, and it is the only shelf we write for.
We are small on purpose, and we expect to stay that way.
Hendrik Deckers, Founder
One letter a month, on the first Sunday. New releases, early chapters, and the occasional opinion. Unsubscribe at any point with zero hurt feelings.