A capstone to an unforgettable career; Over the past half century, the great shape-shifting poet C.K. Williams took upon himself the poet's task: to record with candor and ardor the burden of being alive. In Falling Ill, his final volume of poems, he brings this task to its conclusion, bearing witness to a restless mind's encounter with the brute fact of the body's decay, the spirit's erasure. Written with unsparing lyricism and relentless discursive...

"For those who don't believe in an afterlife, the wisdom of the ages offers four great consolations for mortality: that death is benign and good; that mortal life provides its own kind of immortality; that true immortality would be awful; and that we experience the kinds of losses in life that we will eventually face in death. Can any of these consolations honestly reconcile us to our inevitable demise? In this timely book, Andrew Stark tests the...

Presents differing views on the various social aspects surrounding death and dying worldwide. Causes of death are examined, including increases in mortality due to AIDS in Africa, drug abuse in Scotland, and suicide in Ireland. Chapters discuss access to palliative end-of-life care and assisted suicide; influences of the world's major religions and their beliefs, traditions and rituals surrounding death; and funeral practices around the world.

For decades, American hungers sustained Tijuana. In this scientific detective story, a public health expert reveals what happens when a border city's lifeline is brutally severed. Despite its reputation as a carnival of vice, Tijuana was, until recently, no more or less violent than neighboring San Diego, its sister city across the border wall. But then something changed. Over the past ten years, Mexico's third-largest city became one of the world's...

From the acclaimed author of The Hard Way on Purpose comes a vibrant, heartfelt memoir about confronting mortality, surviving loss, finding resilience in one's roots and seeking a father's wisdom through an unusual woodworking project -- constructing his own coffin. With wisdom and humor, Giffels grapples with the hard questions as he and his father saw, hammer, and sand their way through a year bowed by loss. When Giffels enlisted his dad to help...