We're All Going to Die

A joyful book about the necessity of celebrating life in the face of death.

The one certainty about life is that everybody is going to die. Yet somehow as a society we have come to deny this central fact – we ignore it, hoping it will go away. Ours is an aging society, where we are all living longer, healthier lives, yet we find ourselves less and less prepared for our inevitable end.

Leah Kaminsky is an award-winning writer and GP, who is confronted by death and mortality on a daily basis. She shares - and challenges - our fears of death and dying. But she also takes joy in people whose response to their imminent death is to choose, instead, to consciously embrace life. Like 90 year old Julia, a great-great-grandmother, officially an LOL in Leah's medical terminology (little old lady), who wants to compete in the Senior Olympics. Or a dying friend, who throws himself a 'pre-funeral' gig, to say goodbye to everyone he loves. As Leah says in this uplifting book, 'If we truly open ourselves up to the experiences of those directly confronted with their own mortality, maybe we will overcome our own tunnel vision and decide to live our lives more fully.'

WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE is an engaging, compassionate and compelling book about death - or more specifically, about how, by facing and accepting our coming death, we can all learn to live in a more vital, fearless and truthful way.

'This wonderful and thoughtful book ... crackles with energy, insight and imagery' Weekend Australian

'Leah Kaminsky takes death by the scruff of the neck and gives it a good shake, with often joyous consequences' Courier Mail

'Wise, illuminating and possibly life-changing' Graeme Simsion, author The Rosie Project

'Engaging ... brave ... A very useful book for anyone who plans to die' Australian Book Review

'A beautiful, brave, inspiring work. Required reading for anyone who plans to die.' Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Stiff

'Everyone dies, and so I highly recommend Leah Kaminsky's sensitive and at times irreverent book about death to everyone.' Sandeep Jauhar, New York Times bestselling author of Doctored and Intern

'Kaminsky approaches her subject as a truth-seeker must: with courage, a keen gaze and an open mind. She's a natural storyteller, a humanist through and through, and her insights into the lives and deaths of those she writes about - patients, family and friends - are tender and deeply thoughtful. Elegantly conceived and beautifully written, We're All Going To Die affirms our imperfect lives and wisely exhorts us to live each day as if it were our last.' Jacinta Halloran, author, Pilgramage

Leah Kaminsky, is a physician and award-winning writer. Her debut novel The Waiting Room won the prestigious Voss Literary Prize (Vintage Australia 2015, Harper Perennial US 2016). We're all Going to Die has been described as ‘a joyful book about death' (Harper Collins, 2016). She edited Writer MD (Knopf US, starred on Booklist) and co-authored Cracking the Code (Vintage 2015). Stitching Things Together was a finalist in the Anne Elder Poetry Award. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts.  

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