From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to find the Good Death

Written by:
Caitlin Doughty
Narrated by:
Caitlin Doughty

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
19
Narrator
10
Release Date
October 2017
Duration
5 hours 38 minutes
Summary
The best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with 'dignity.' Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for their dead. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body. Grandpa's mummy has lived in the family home for two years, where the family has maintained a warm and respectful relationship. She meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette- smoking, wish- granting human skulls), and introduces us to a Japanese kotsuage, in which relatives use chopsticks to pluck their loved- ones' bones from cremation ashes. With curiosity and morbid humor, Doughty encounters vividly decomposed bodies and participates in compelling, powerful death practices almost entirely unknown in America. Featuring Gorey-esque illustrations by artist Landis Blair, From Here to Eternity introduces death-care innovators researching green burial and body composting, explores new spaces for mourning- including a glowing- Buddha columbarium in Japan and America's only open-air pyre- and reveals unexpected new possibilities for our own death rituals. Author bio: Mortician Caitlin Doughty--host and creator of 'Ask a Mortician' and the New York Times best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes--founded the death acceptance collective The Order of the Good Death and co-founded Death Salon. She lives in Los Angeles, where she runs her nonprofit funeral home, Undertaking LA.
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Amy M.

This book is very thought provoking.

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Alexia W.

This book is a brilliant non fiction that explore the veiled reality of death. The author brings history, humor and insight to the table to make the reader question the American Death and our cultures rituals. I HIGHLY rrecommended to anyone with an open mind who wants a taste of how other countries from around the world view and handle death.

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Kayla W

If you are interested in death and culture, this is a great book for you. Follow Kaitlyn around the world discovering how different cultures handle death and grief. Unwrap the mysteries of what is ultimately considered a fearful subject in the United States. I recommend this book to anyone that’s lost someone who knows someone that has lost someone or simply interested in the societal study of death and dying. As far as the audiobook I would say I like that the author was the narrator she was able to fully convey what she was attempting to write.

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