HOW WE DIE: REFLECTIONS ON LIFE'S FINAL CHAPTER by Sherwin Nuland (Alfred A. Knopf) is one of the most important books I read this year. Nuland offers an unsparing and deeply moving look at the actual process by which we die. The description is clinical, in the best sense of the word, and the writing is very good.
There are some tremendously painful passages in this book. Most memorable is the description of the homicide death of a seven-year-old girl in front of her mother's eyes. But the accounts of death from cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer's are also beautifully realized setpieces.
This book made me confront my own mortality in a way that I have rarely done. Highly recommended. Lensman material.
Editor's Recommendations, Summer 1996In this inaugural edition of IBIC's Featured Books, I'd like to draw your attention to several titles which have helped to shape my life and thinking.
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