Our Long Marvelous Dying, Anna DeForest
Our Long Marvelous Dying, Anna DeForest
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Our Long Marvelous Dying
A Novel

Author: Anna DeForest

Narrator: Maggi-Meg Reed

Unabridged: 5 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/09/2024


Synopsis

Palliative-care physician and award-winning author Anna DeForest returns with an ode to life and to death, and the ways we care for ourselves and others on our long, marvelous walk toward the end.

In a pandemic-hushed city, a young doctor lives a life of insecure attachments: to a distant partner in an untended marriage, to a loaner child who stirs up hurts from the past, to houseplants wilting in a dark apartment on a once-vibrant street. 

Through a yearlong fellowship caring for the dying and their families, death is impossible to ignore, and still more endings loom at every turn—endings made worse by wounded, avoidant doctors who don’t know how to let go. But after the sudden loss of a long-estranged father, our unnamed narrator’s work is thrown into painful relief, and we see, under threats large and small, how far we will go to hold on to our lives—no matter how little we live them. 
 
Lyrical and with piercing insight, Our Long Marvelous Dying is a meditation on the twin drives of life and death—and how all of us reckon, day by day, with their ecstatic, inevitable collide.

Reviews

Goodreads review by James

What an intriguing book! Our Long Marvelous Dying by Anna Deforest is a compelling novel about dying, death, and what it means to be alive. It’s a heart-wrenching read, but it is a rewarding one as well. The unnamed narrator in this novel shares her experience as a palliative care physician who works......more

Goodreads review by Sam

Anna DeForest is so incredible at analyzing and reckoning with complex grief in their writing. In this book, we follow a young doctor finishing a fellowship in palliative care while dealing with loss in her own life. Over the course of the book, the narrator deeply and tenderly reflects on the vastn......more

Goodreads review by Vincent

“The past is permanent, is what I am trying to say. It comes to be something you can manage only because it does not change. But for this same reason, you can tell that the past is not real, because everything real changes all the time. In the process of becoming, nothing pauses long enough for you......more

"Our Long Marvelous Dying" by Anna DeForest is a poignant exploration of the human experience in the face of mortality. DeForest's lyrical prose beautifully captures the complexities of life, death, and the spaces in between. The characters are intricately developed, and the narrative unfolds with a......more

Goodreads review by Kelly

Writing about death and dying isn't easy and I applaud DeForest for a book about both. The title and cover made me want to read this one. I didn't love the story but gathered what DeForest was trying to explain. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.......more