“Either because of the seriousness of the subject, or because of the acumen of the editors, these essays make for a singularly powerful, substantial, and thoughtful collection. A celebration of good writing, under the auspices of the grim reaper.” —Phillip Lopate
“Editors Shields and Morrow elicit a wide-ranging variety of responses to their request to 'speak the unspeakable, envision the unseeable.' A wonderfully speculative patchwork quilt on the meaning of life and death.” —Kirkus Reviews
“[P]oignant, heartfelt essays...[S]eriously considered, highly literate analyses...raise the bar for more philosophical readers searching for alternatives to age-old traditions perpetuated in religious dogma.” —Dale Farris, Library Journal
“Though one might expect a funereal pall to have settled over a book about death, these essays are as sharp, surprising, and provocative as they are sad.” —Anne Fadiman
“……When editors Shields and Morrow approached 20 writers with the idea for this anthology, their requirements were simple: address the subject of death and 'speak about the unspeakable.' What resulted is a collection of extraordinary essays ranging from the life cycles of flies to reflections on a '70s-era porn film, the 'omance of old cemeteries,' and 'ghost bikes' as memorials to traffic victims. Often poetic and at times funny or gruesome while exposing raw grief, the writers--Mark Doty, Jonathan Safran, Geoff Dyer, Annie Dillard, to name a few--tackle the subject of death with honesty and courage. (Feb.) .” —Publishers Weekly
“In their introduction, Shields and Morrow resurrect some wisdom from the late David Foster Wallace: 'I strongly suspect a big part of [a writer's] job is to aggravate [the] sense of entrapment and loneliness and death in people, to move people to countenance...what we want to deny.' It's a tall order, and these excellent essays fill it. -- Elle
“Shields, a much-published author and professor of English at the University of Washington, and Morrow, writer and literature professor at Bard College, have curated this collection well, offering a diversity of views, yet a consistently high level of thought. Their eloquent introduction sets up these pieces, several of them previously published. Suffusing the collection as a whole is the humility expressed by Lynne Tillman at the end of her essay: "Of death, mortals are absolutely ignorant. The dead, fortunately, are beyond caring." Ultimately, these readings may bring the reader some comfort to realize, perhaps again, that we are all in this together.” -- Seattle Times