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From the Magnificent to the Macabre - How We Dignify the Dead
by Sarah Murray
With the surprising humor of Mary Roach's Stiff and the globe-spanning bravado of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations, this is a journey into the astonishingly diverse ways in which we send off our dead.
Journalist Sarah Murray never gave much thought to what might ultimately happen to her remains - until her father died. Now, puzzled by the choices he made about the disposal of his "organic matter," she embarks on a series of voyages to discover how death is commemorated in different cultures.
Along the way Murray encounters a royal cremation in Bali, Mexico's Dia de los Muertos, a Czech chandelier made from human bones, a weeping ceremony in Iran, and a Philippine village where the casketed dead are left hanging in caves. She even goes to Ghana to commission a coffin for herself.
Her accounts of these journeys are fascinating, poignant, and funny. But this is a very personal quest - on her travels, Murray is also seeking inspiration for her own send off.
"Starred Review. In less capable hands the subject matter might be morbid or disturbing, but with Murray at the helm, this journey in search of death is full of life." - Publishers Weekly
"The global riot of activity and information always yields thematically to a quiet return to the contrast with the old graveyard in the Dorset countryside - and the recognition that perhaps to have one's final wishes respected might just be enough for anyone." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about Making an Exit was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Sarah Murray is author of Moveable Feasts: From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Food We Eat. A longtime Financial Times contributor, she lives in New York City.
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