In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife

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A near-fatal health emergency leads to this powerful reflection on deathand what might followby the bestselling author of Tribe and The Perfect Storm.

'Mind blowingly brilliant' PHILIPPA PERRY
For years as an award-winning war reporter, Sebastian Junger travelled to many front lines and frequently put his life at risk. And yet the closest he ever came to death was the summer of 2020 while spending a quiet afternoon at the New England home he shared with his wife and two young children. Crippled by abdominal pain, Junger was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Once there, he began slipping away. As blackness encroached, he was visited by his dead father, inviting Junger to join him. Its okay, his father said. Theres nothing to be scared of. Ill take care of you. That was the last thing Junger remembered until he came to the next day when he was told he had suffered a ruptured aneurysm that he should not have survived.

This experience spurred Jungera confirmed atheist raised by his physicist father to respect the empiricalto undertake a scientific, philosophical, and deeply personal examination of mortality and what happens after we die. How do we begin to process the brutal fact that any of us might perish unexpectedly on what begins as an ordinary day How do we grapple with phenomena that science may be unable to explain And what happens to a person, emotionally and spiritually, when we are forced to reckon with such existential questions

In My Time of Dying is part medical drama, part searing autobiography, and part rational inquiry into the ultimate unknowable mystery.

Stunning A powerful book that comes as close as anything Ive read in explaining what it means to be human JAMES PATTERSON

'An instant classic that filled me with wonder, gratitude and awe' WILL SCHWALBE

'A stunning account I didnt so much read as inhale, awed and riveted and forever changed' MICHAEL FINKEL

'Riveting and resonant' Publishers Weekly

Reviews

'Mind blowingly brilliant Makes you think. Makes you wonder. Still getting my head round it. I found it clever AND moving' Philippa Perry, author of The Book You Want Everyone You Love To Read

Stunning A powerful book that comes as close as anything Ive read in explaining what it means to be human. Sebastian Junger is one of the finest writers of our generation James Patterson, New York Times #1 bestselling author

'A riveting and resonant meditation on some of lifes biggest questions' Publishers Weekly

'Sebastian Junger, a virtuoso of narrative nonfiction, has conjured his most personal and yet universal book, a stunning account I didnt so much read as inhale, awed and riveted and forever changed' Michael Finkel, New York Times bestselling author of The Art Thief

Sebastian Junger is known for standing on the front lines in places that scare the hell out of the rest of us. Nowhere is that truer than in In My Time of Dying, where he turns inward to examine his own mortality, the most frighteningyet fascinatingfrontier there is Caitlin Doughty, author of Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory

'With this soon-to-be classic, Junger has crafted an ode to the magical healing power of love and the wonder of life' David R. Dow, author of Things Ive Learned from Dying: A Book About Life

'Combining elements of a heart-pounding medical thriller with brilliantly clear science-writing, Sebastian Junger has written a tour-de-force about the biggest mystery we all face. With stories from war, medicine, history, and everyday life woven throughout, this is an instant classic that filled me with wonder, gratitude, and awe' Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club

Author Bio

Sebastian Junger grew up in New England and has worked as a tree-feller, Bosnian correspondent, journalist and adventurer. His first book, The Perfect Storm, has spent over four years on the bestseller lists and its film adaptation was a huge box-office success. Junger is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, and winner of the National Magazine Award for Reporting. He has also written for magazines including Harper's, the New York Times Magazine, and National Geographic Adventure.