Irvin D. Yalom, emeritus professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, is the author of internationally bestselling books, including Love's Executioner, The Gift of Therapy, Becoming Myself, and When Nietzsche Wept. Marilyn Yalom's books include classics of cultural history such as A History of the Wife, Birth of the Chess Queen, and How the French Invented Love, as well as her final book released posthumously, Innocent Witnesses: Childhood Memories of World War II. They were married for sixty-five years.
"For over half a century, the eminent psychiatrist Irvin Yalom has
dazzled the world with his stories of the human psyche packed with
wisdom, insight, and humor. Now, with stunning candor and courage,
he shares with us the most difficult experience of his life: the
loss of his wife and steadfast companion since adolescence.
Partners to the end, including in the co-writing of this book, they
share an indelible portrait of bereavement—the terror, pain,
denial, and reluctant acceptance. But what we are left with is much
more than a profound story of enduring loss—it's an unforgettable
and achingly beautiful story of enduring love. I will be thinking
about this for years to come."
—Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You
Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives
Revealed
"This beautiful, poignant, and uplifting memoir is a love story, a
tale of two incredibly accomplished lives that were lived almost as
one, the sum turning out to be so much greater than its parts. It
will inspire you and perhaps move you to look differently at your
life—it did that for me."—Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for
Stone
"The Yaloms are not just honest, but astonishingly generous with
their readers. This book takes its immediate place in the canon of
great end-of-life memoirs."—Caitlin Doughty, founder of The Order
of the Good Death
"A Matter of Death and Life is both a sweet reminiscence and a path
to discovery. Two eminent professors, authors, and lifelong
partners grapple with aging, fragility, and death. In the process
of honestly meeting the precariousness of life, they come to a
deeper appreciation of its preciousness."—Frank Ostaseski, author
of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About
Living Fully
"A Matter of Death and Life is so much more than a book. It is an
indefatigable love story. It is a text that traverses past and
present. It is exquisite, candid, and vulnerable—absent the
too-common defenses of artifice and pomposity—as it approaches the
untenable pain of separation and unyielding yearning of loss. Every
person would benefit from multiple readings of this intelligently
relatable book, both to confront dying as we inch toward our own
mortality and, perhaps more importantly, the grief when one so
beloved precedes us in death. I am deeply enriched for having
absorbed this intimate narrative, as I wipe the tears from my eyes.
Irv and Marilyn's love story, ending in the tragedy of endings, is
yours, mine, and all of ours."—Dr. Joanne Cacciatore, author of
Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of
Grief
"This is a remarkable book—as remarkable as its authors, Irv Yalom,
the master existential therapist and widely read author, and
Marilyn Yalom, an accomplished scholar and writer. Summoning
immense courage, the Yaloms co-write the story of their emotional
and moral caregiving for each other. A Matter of Death and Life is
the culmination of the Yaloms' career-long quests for wisdom in the
art of living and dying. It is a book that transforms the reader—I
couldn't put it down."—Arthur Kleinman, author of The Soul of Care:
The Moral Education of a Husband and Doctor
"This book is illuminating and vivid, a beautiful examination of
the consolation of a life well-lived, and a beacon of hope to all
of us who will be bereaved. And of course, it is an exposition of
how we who are mortal learn to live with that very truth about
ourselves."—Kathryn Mannix, Sunday Times bestselling author of With
the End in Mind: Dying, Death and Wisdom in an Age of Denial
"The book has countless pieces of wisdom for anyone confronting
death....The Yaloms' distinct voices are complements to each other
and gifts to readers. A profound love story with lessons for how to
live as well as how to die."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The memoir is clearly the ending to a big love story... The Yaloms
are still very much in love, and that is both bizarre and dull,
alienating and encouraging to read about. But what interests me is
not how to stay with the same person for seven decades... but,
again, that starry uncertainty, silver and hot: How do we choose to
die?"—Audrey Wollen, The New York Review of Books
"A Matter of Death and Life is wise, beautiful, heartbreaking,
raw—a paean to enduring love and what it means."
—The Times
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