Sweet Sorrow: A Beginner's Guide To Death

(Paperback)

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Description

This is the one book that you will want to take to the grave. This remarkable book-at times heart-breaking, at times humorous-is dazzling for its profound honesty. Like most of us, Mark Wakely had always put death in the too-hard basket. Around death he was painfully awkward, strangely self-conscious- death-shy. He was curiously distanced from his own parents' deaths. Thirty years later, he went on a journey to confront one of the most intensely personal yet universal experiences- our own mortality. With Mark as our guide, we are introduced to morticians and embalmers, rabbis and doctors, coffin makers and gravediggers. He reveals the fashions and the fads, the rituals and the deep emotion in a heartfelt and whimsical investigation into this timeless subject. All you need to pack for the trip is a curiosity about life.

Author Bio

Mark Wakely is a Sydney-based writer, and a journalist with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National. His first book, Dream Home-a reflection on domestic architecture and the meaning of home-was short-listed for the 2004 NSW Premier's Literary Award for non-fiction.