Next Chapter: Death and Dying (Fiction and Nonfiction)
The resources on this list include novels, memoirs, and nonfiction titles offering insight and practical advice related to death and dying processes. Created by librarians at The Seattle Public Library. (Created by the Older Adults Program Manager, September 2023)
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Being Mortal
Nonfiction. Gawande presents problems and potential solutions to the question of how we can best address our mortality. Through stories and research he shows that we are shifting from a highly medicalized end of life to an experience in which we can have some sort of meaning. Surgeon, writer, and public health researcher Gawande asks how we can live out our later years in the way we desire and how best to talk to our health-care providers to achieve that. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: All copies in use
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Woman at 1,000 Degrees
Fiction. Helgason's sad and funny novel begins in 2009, as 80-year-old Herra Björnsson lies dying in a Reykavík garage, still in possession of a live hand grenade from World War II. Her limited activities of late include corresponding under a false identity with an Australian bodybuilder, arranging her own cremation, smoking, and recalling her eventful past. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Half Known Life
Nonfiction. Essayist and novelist Iyer presents this thoughtful exploration of the concepts of paradise, and whether anything resembling it can be found in the earthly realm. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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The Tibetan Book of the Dead for Beginners
Nonfiction. (A) slim but insightful take on the classic Buddhist text on dying well. Composed in the eighth century by Buddhist master Padmasambhava, The Tibetan Book of the Dead addresses end-of-life concerns but can prove inaccessible to the non-Buddhist. In this entry, the authors spotlight its central principles and recast them for a broader audience. (Publishers Weekly)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Tell Me How This Ends
Fiction. Two lonely women form a tender bond in this melancholy yet hopeful debut. Henrietta Lockwood feels like she has failed. Having been let go from several jobs, she is now struggling to find something new. When she comes across an ad for the Life Story project, an organization that helps terminal patients write books reflecting on their lives, she applies, not realizing the position will change her forever. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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And Finally
Nonfiction. Author of the New York Times best-selling Do No Harm, which won the PEN Ackerley Prize and was short-listed for many other honors, retired neurosurgeon Marsh got a different take on the medical world when he was diagnosed with advanced cancer. Here he meditates on the move from doctor to patient, the challenges of illness and aging, and the beauties of family and science. (Library Journal)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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A Beginner's Guide to the End
Nonfiction. A clear-eyed and big-hearted action plan for approaching the end of life, written to help readers feel more in control of an experience that so often seems anything but. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Tell Me Good Things
Nonfiction. In this startling and intimate memoir of life before death and love after grief, the internationally best-selling author tells the story of his wife's battle with Lou Gehrig's disease and her death, while celebrating her life, in all its color, humor, and brightness. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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Gratitude
Nonfiction. No writer has succeeded in capturing the medical and human drama of illness as honestly and as eloquently as Oliver Sacks. During the last few months of his life, he wrote a set of essays in which he movingly explored his feelings about completing a life and coming to terms with his own death. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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These Vital Signs
Nonfiction. A doctor reflects on his profession and his experience with patients in this brilliant essay collection that expands on his wildly popular Twitter poems. In medicine, every patient presents with a story. "Once upon a time I was well, and then..." These patient narratives are the beating heart of medicine; through stories we strive to communicate, to understand, to empathize, and perhaps find healing. (Publisher description)
Format: Book
Availability: Available
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