From Here To Eternity

An eye-opening, entertaining and thought-provoking account of a mortician's global journey to discover how other cultures care for their dead - by the author of the acclaimed memoir Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.

As a practicing mortician, Caitlin Doughty has long been fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies. In this new book she sets out in search of cultures unburdened by such fears, exploring Indonesian burial caves and meeting a Bolivian ñatita (a cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skull). With curiosity and morbid humour, Doughty encounters vividly decomposed corpses, participates in diverse death practices, and uncovers historical and national oddities. Appraising 'dignified' Western funerary traditions (in which we pump bodies full of chemicals or burn them in giant ovens), she marvels as people create new spaces for mourning - including a futuristic glowing-Buddha columbarium in Japan, a candlelit Mexican cemetery, and America's only open-air pyre in Colorado. From Here to Eternity tells a story that expands our sense of what's 'normal' and explores how unexpected moments of comfort and healing can be gained through directly tending to our deceased.