The Book of Resting Places A Personal History of Where We Lay the Dead |
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| Author:
| Mira y Lopez, Thomas |
| ISBN: | 978-1-61902-123-5 |
| Publication Date: | Nov 2017 |
| Publisher: | Counterpoint Press
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| Book Format: | Hardback |
| List Price: | USD $26.00 |
Book Description:
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"The Book of Resting Places is Mira y Lopez's account of his travels, from a cemetery to a crematorium to a cryonics company . . . He's looking for the good death, somewhere, anywhere." --The New Yorker In the aftermath of his father's untimely death and his family's indecision over what to do with the remains, Thomas Mira y Lopez became obsessed with the type and variety of places where we lay the dead to rest. The result is a singular collection of...
More Description "The Book of Resting Places is Mira y Lopez's account of his travels, from a cemetery to a crematorium to a cryonics company . . . He's looking for the good death, somewhere, anywhere." --The New Yorker
In the aftermath of his father's untimely death and his family's indecision over what to do with the remains, Thomas Mira y Lopez became obsessed with the type and variety of places where we lay the dead to rest. The result is a singular collection of essays that weaves together history, mythology, journalism, and personal narrative into the author's search for a place to process grief.
Mira y Lopez explores unusual hallowed grounds--from the world's largest cryonics institute in southern Arizona to a set of Roman catacombs being digested by modern bacteria, to his family's burial plots in the mountains outside Rio de Janeiro to a nineteenth-century desert cemetery that was relocated for the building of a modern courthouse.The Book of Resting Places examines these overlooked spaces and what they tell us about ourselves and the passing of those we love--how we grieve them, and how we attempt to forget them.