Chosen one of the Top Ten books for 2011
in Literary Essays & Criticism by Publisher's Weekly

“Either because of the seriousness of the subject, or 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

"A collection of extraordinary essays .... Often poetic and at times funny or gruesome while exposing raw grief, the writers—Mark Doty, Jonathan Safran Foer, Geoff Dyer, Annie Dillard, to name a few—tackle the subject of death with honesty and courage." —Publishers Weekly

"This moving, thoughtful and necessary collection voices it all, reassuring and frightening in equal measure."
—The Independent

"This collection features a who's who of writers…. Even if they can't make death fun, they can certainly make it fascinating!" —www.largeheartedboy.com

"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

"[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." —Library Journal