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Sweet Sorrow

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Sweet Sorrow

By: Mark Wakely
Narrated by: Grant Cartwright
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About this listen

 This remarkable book - at times heartbreaking, at times humorous - is dazzling for its profound honesty. Like most of us, Mark Wakely had always put death in the too-hard basket. Around death he was painfully awkward, strangely self-conscious: death-shy. He was curiously distanced from his own parents' deaths. Thirty years later, he went on a journey to confront one of the most intensely personal yet universal experiences: our own mortality. With Mark as our guide, we are introduced to morticians and embalmers, rabbis and doctors, coffin makers and gravediggers. He reveals the fashions and the fads, the rituals and the deep emotion in a heartfelt and whimsical investigation into this timeless subject. All you need to pack for the trip is a curiosity about life.©2008 Mark Wakely. (P)2010 Bolinda Publishing Death & Dying Social Sciences Sociology

Editorial reviews

Australian author Mark Wakely had always been embarrassed around death (when once asked to be a pallbearer, he blushed as red as the funeral's roses). Determined to face his discomfort, Wakely sets out on a journey to better understand death and those who care for us after we're gone. Performer Grant Cartwright's smooth, measured tones are an excellent fit for Wakely's sensitive explorations of funeral homes, morgues, coffin factories, and palliative care units, which eschew the puns and obvious humor of most death books in favor of a gently emotional unveiling. An ideal introduction for those curious about death and what lies beyond.

Critic Reviews

"Books such as Mark Wakely's Sweet Sorrow are long overdue in presenting honest examination of what it means to die in contemporary Australia." (The Courier Mail)
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