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  • The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead

  • By: David Shields
  • Narrated by: Peter Marinker
  • Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (3 ratings)

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The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead cover art

The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead

By: David Shields
Narrated by: Peter Marinker
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Publisher's Summary

Mesmerized and somewhat unnerved by his 97-year-old father's vitality and optimism, David Shields undertakes an original investigation of our flesh-and-blood existence, our mortal being. Weaving together personal anecdote, biological fact, philosophical doubt, cultural criticism, and the wisdom of an eclectic range of writers and thinkers - from Lucretius to Woody Allen - Shields expertly renders both a hilarious family portrait and a truly resonant meditation on mortality.

A New York Times Bestseller in 2008, The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead, is an insightful, honest and uplifting portrait of what it means to be human, and one day to die.
©2008 David Shields (P)2011 Penguin Audio
Biographies & Memoirs Death & Dying Grief & Loss Relationships
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Critic Reviews

"Breathtaking . . . Shields had us laughing out loud, even in the face of death." (Time Out, Chicago)
"An edifying, unclassifiable mixture of filial love and Oedipal rage." (Time)
"Shields is a sharp-eyed, self-deprecating, at times hilarious writer." (Wall Street Journal)

What listeners say about The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead

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Sundries of information and statistics about human body and death

Knowing more about death was not depressing. It was rather an encouraging and humbling experience.

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