Includes 40 short reflections which address the ways in which we face the prospect of death and loss out of which the first 20 reflections are designed to be read by (or to) those living with a life-threatening illness; and the other 20 are reflections on living with grief, especially bereavement.

Professor Allan Kellehear is a medical and public health sociologist with interests in death, dying and end of life care. In addition to two previous chairs in England (at the Universities of Bath and Middlesex), and is Professor at Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford.

The Good Story of Life
When death knocks at our door . . .
1 The Tree of Life
2 Fear and Dread
3 Friendship
4 The Question
5 Near-Death Experiences
6 The Body
7 Sex
8 The Burden of Peter Schlemihl
9 Christmas with Andy
10 Joy
11 God
12 Your Best Offer
13 Monsters
14 Astronaut
15 Planning and Preparing
16 A Living Thing
17 Shareholders
18 Your Fortune in Cairo
19 What will it be like for you?
20 Everlasting Things
Death and society and truth and fairy tale
21 Death: Worth Living For
22 Death and Social Attitudes
23 Public Notice
24 A History Lesson
25 Room for a View
26 Visitor to No. 23
27 Not Fate
28 Life and Death
29 Loss
30 Eternity and Me
Secrets of the clasped hands of the heart
31 Grief
32 The Legend of the White Butterfly
33 Death Pact
34 Folly
35 Concerning Tears
36 Not Being There
37 The First Friend
38 Missing and Hoping
39 The Comfort of Darkness
40 To Honor Their Memory
Parting Words
At Day's End
Index