A Beginner's Guide to Dying
The Sunday Times Bestseller, 'Has anyone ever written a more inspirational paean to the joy of life?' Daily Mail
-
- 11,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
As featured on BBC Radio 4
'Funny and touching' Sunday Times
'Extraordinary' Observer
'Full of both wisdom and humour' Julia Samuel
'Funny, moving, brave' Jeremy Bowen
'I had the privilege to conduct Simon's last broadcast interview - knowing his wise words on the page could live on afterwards' Emma Barnett
*****READER REVIEWS
'Simon's cheerful voice comes through every page'
'An absolute gift of a book ... This book has the potential to change your life'
'Stunning'
It isn't quite 'Don't buy any green bananas'. But it's close to 'Don't start any long books'.
In his mid-40s, Simon Boas was diagnosed with incurable cancer – it had been caught too late, and spread around his body. But he was determined to die as he had learned to live – optimistically, thinking the best of people, and prioritising what really matters in life.
In A Beginner's Guide to Dying Simon considers and collates the things that have given him such a great sense of peace and contentment, and why dying at 46 really isn't so bad. And for that reason it's also only partly about 'dying'. It is mostly a hymn to the joy and preciousness of life, and why giving death a place can help all of us make even more of it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this candid collection, late British aid worker Boas muses on life and death in the wake of his terminal throat cancer diagnosis. Expanding on three articles he wrote for the Jersey Post following his diagnosis at age 46, the author discusses meditation, gratitude, religion, and—in an especially valuable section—how to interact with those who are dying (readers should take care to listen well; acknowledge the elephant in the room without harping on it; and refrain from forcing a "final farewell"—which often occurs for the catharsis of the visitor, not the dying person). Most of the account meditates on what it means to live fully in the light of death, and Boas's solid if somewhat predictable advice to seize the day is enriched by his wry humor and moments of genuine insight, as when he discusses being comforted by the interconnectedness of humanity and the idea of the world going on without him: "Children will want ice creams and people will fall head-over-heels in love and musicians will delight us.... I find the contemplation of other selves to be... enormously moving." This poignant volume inspires.
