Overview
With the surprising humor of Mary Roach’s Stiff and the globe-spanning bravado of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, this is a journey into the astonishingly diverse ways in which we send off our dead
Journalist Sarah Murray never gave much thought to what might ultimately happen to her remains—until her father died. Now, puzzled by the choices he made about the disposal of his “organic matter,” she embarks on a series of voyages to discover how death is commemorated in different cultures.
Death’s Doors is Murray’s exploration of the extraordinary creativity unleashed when we seek to dignify the dead. Along the way, she encounters a royal cremation in Bali, Mexico’s Dia de los Muertos, a Czech chandelier made from human bones, a weeping ceremony in Iran, and a Philippine village where the casketed dead are left hanging in caves. She even goes to Ghana to commission a coffin for herself.
Her accounts of these journeys are fascinating, poignant, and funny. But this is a very personal quest—on her travels, Murray is also seeking inspiration for her own send off.