內容簡介
令人心碎、風格奇特，動人的故事，雖然傷感，卻讓人深深感動。甚至因為這本書的鼓勵，能勇敢擁抱遺忘與死亡。──Dodai Stewart，Jezebel.com副主編
透過這些精彩的軼事，重新思考死亡的意義。──舊金山紀事報
幽默富有啟發性。──娛樂周刊
也許只有融會貫通，生命才能走得更遠，故事才能寫得動人，本書作者是二十出頭的年輕殯儀業者，以黑色幽默的口吻描述她令人感到可怕卻又著迷的職業細節，充滿離奇的死亡場景，奇型怪狀的苦難屍體，並揭露了火葬場的歷史與面貌。本書可媲美HBO自製影集《六呎風雲》，誠懇和衷心的文字，自嘲和諷刺的語氣，引人入勝的情節，時而捧腹，時而落淚，使得這個本來是忌諱的話題，顯得平易近人，讓死亡的呈現另一種面貌。引人入勝。
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
'Compassionate, unblinking and very, very funny' MEG ROSOFF
'Eye-opening . . . occasionally haunting, always insightful' DAVID EAGLEMAN
From her very first day at Westwind Cremation & Burial, twenty-three-year-old Caitlin Doughty threw herself into the gruesome daily tasks of her curious new profession. From caring for bodies of all shapes and sizes, picking up corpses from the hospital morgue, sweeping ashes from the cremation machines (sometimes onto her clothes) and learning to deal with mourning families, Caitlin comes face-to-face with the very thing we go to great lengths to avoid thinking about - death.
But as she started to wonder about the lives of those she cremated, and found herself confounded by people's erratic reactions to death, Caitlin's feelings began to evolve in unexpected ways. Now a licensed mortician, Caitlin tells the story of her fumbling apprenticeship with the dead. Exploring our death rituals - and those of other cultures - she pleads the case for healthier attitudes around death and dying. Full of bizarre encounters, gallows humour and vivid characters (both living and very dead), this illuminating account makes this otherwise terrifying subject urgent and fascinating.
