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From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death Hardcover – Illustrated, October 3, 2017

by Caitlin Doughty (Author), Landis Blair (Illustrator)
4.8 out of 5 stars 5,504
Editors' pick Best Nonfiction
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A New York Times and Los Angeles Times Bestseller

The best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with "dignity."

Fascinated by our pervasive fear of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for the dead. From Here to Eternity is an immersive global journey that introduces compelling, powerful rituals almost entirely unknown in America.

In rural Indonesia, she watches a man clean and dress his grandfather’s mummified body, which has resided in the family home for two years. In La Paz, she meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls), and in Tokyo she encounters the Japanese kotsuage ceremony, in which relatives use chopsticks to pluck their loved-ones’ bones from cremation ashes.

With boundless curiosity and gallows humor, Doughty vividly describes decomposed bodies and investigates the world’s funerary history. She introduces deathcare innovators researching body composting and green burial, and examines how varied traditions, from Mexico’s Días de los Muertos to Zoroastrian sky burial help us see our own death customs in a new light.

Doughty contends that the American funeral industry sells a particular―and, upon close inspection, peculiar―set of "respectful" rites: bodies are whisked to a mortuary, pumped full of chemicals, and entombed in concrete. She argues that our expensive, impersonal system fosters a corrosive fear of death that hinders our ability to cope and mourn. By comparing customs, she demonstrates that mourners everywhere respond best when they help care for the deceased, and have space to participate in the process.

Exquisitely illustrated by artist Landis Blair, From Here to Eternity is an adventure into the morbid unknown, a story about the many fascinating ways people everywhere have confronted the very human challenge of mortality.

45 illustrations
Previous page
  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  4. Publication date
    October 3, 2017
  5. Dimensions
    5.9 x 1 x 8.6 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0393249891
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0393249897
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Doughty, founder of the Order of the Good Death, a nonprofit organization that advocates for natural burial and reducing the stigma around death, describes funereal rituals around the world while stopping to reflect on U.S. practices. In Indonesia, for instance, the Toraja keep the dead at home for several months or years until the funeral. The author also explores the North Carolina's FOREST facility, which composts corpses, and the Crestone End of Life, a Colorado nonprofit that performs open-air cremations. Doughty shares her reverence for the dead while poking fun at our fears ("gross as it sounds, I'd come back from the dead for a Diet Coke"). She forces U.S. readers to confront the secretive and profitable mortuary business and sheds light on cultures that celebrate death. If death is inevitable, she asks, why are we afraid to address it? As the Bolivians look to their natitas (special human skulls), we can look to them for a level of comfort and familiarity with death. "How would your ancestors deal with tragedy?" Probably not with a $10,000 check to take a dead body away. VERDICT Recommend this fascinating and well-written book to fans of Mary Roach's Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers.—Pamela Schembri, Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua, NY

Review

"Doughty is a relentlessly curious and chipper tour guide to the underworld, and the weirder things get, the happier she seems. … [H]er dispatches from the dark side [are] doing us all a kindness―offering a picture of what we’re in for, even if we’d rather not know."
― Libby Copeland, New York Times Book Review

"Doughty chronicles [death] practices with tenderheartedness, a technician’s fascination, and an unsentimental respect for grief."
― Jill Lepore, The New Yorker

"Doughty writes bluntly about open-air cremations, natural burials and body composting, bringing a little more clarity and a little less mystery to the question: 'What happens to us after we die?'"
― NPR (Our Guide to 2017's Great Reads)

"[T]he macabre travelogue is a thoughtful reflection and a smart critique of the American funeral industry, with plenty of gallows humor thrown in."
― Smithsonian (The Ten Best Travel Books of 2017)

"Doughty finds the humanity in others cultures' relationship with death that seems to be lacking in ours."
― Justin Caffier, Vice

"This slim volume, full of captivating, enlightening, and humorous tidbits, is a―dare I say―uplifting exploration of what people the world over do to withstand loss and the bite of impermanence. This is death as viewed by a mortician: profound, unavoidable, natural, and a bit funny."
― KQED

"This humane book gently provokes you to wonder: what exactly is your ideal funeral?"
― The Times

"From Here To Eternity is fascinating, thought-provoking and – who would have guessed? – sometimes funny. Put it on your bucket list."
― The Mail

"Caitlin Doughty is razor sharp, and writes about death with exceptional clarity and style. From Here to Eternity manages to be both an extremely funny travelogue and a deeply moving book about what death means to us all."
― Dylan Thuras, co-founder of Atlas Obscura

"[Doughty’s] fascinating tour of rituals contains liturgies that readers will surely observe as rare, macabre, unbelievable, ancient, and precious―sometimes simultaneously."
― Kirkus

"She is the ideal guide on this journey, curious and respectful...Recommended for fans of the author and those with an interest in anthropology and ritual."
― Library Journal

"A thought-provoking book about the complicated, fascinating world of funerary practices. Unless you and your friends are immortal, this book pertains to you."
― A. J. Jacobs

"In her jocular but reverential tone… Doughty doesn’t offer a simple morbid travelogue; instead, she digs into diverse death experiences with deep veneration and examines ties to socioeconomic, status, female identity, and religion."
― Booklist

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; Illustrated edition (October 3, 2017)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393249891
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393249897
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.9 x 1 x 8.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.8 out of 5 stars 5,504

About the authors

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  1. Caitlin Doughty

    Caitlin Doughty

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    Caitlin Doughty is a writer and death acceptance advocate. She started working in the funeral industry as a crematory operator at age 23, a job described in her first book, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Since then she founded the nonprofit Order of the Good Death, started the Ask a Mortician Youtube series, and introduced the movement of death awareness and death positivity in the Western world. She owns a family-centered funeral home in Southern California. Her other New York Times bestsellers are From Here to Eternity and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?

    See more on the author's page
  2. Landis Blair

    Landis Blair

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Landis Blair is the author and illustrator of The Envious Siblings: and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes, as well as the illustrator of the New York Times bestseller From Here to Eternity and the graphic novel The Hunting Accident, which won the 2021 Fauve d’Or and the 2020 Quai des Bulles prize. His illustrations have appeared in numerous print and online periodicals including The New Yorker, the New York Times, Chicago magazine, VQR, and Medium. He lives in Chicago. Photo by Andi Linden.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5 stars
4.8 out of 5
5,504 global ratings
Keep an Open Mind & EXCELLENT BOOK
5 Stars
Keep an Open Mind & EXCELLENT BOOK
First I have to say; you have to keep an open mind when reading because it does tackle the hard subject of death. I absolutely loved this book, I can’t say it enough. I’ve never understood why western culture (my culture as well) has this negative attitude towards death & fear it so much. When I read this book, it showed me how other cultures view/treat death and it is amazing. It is beautiful how these cultures view and treat their loved ones after death; it seems so much more peaceful than how we treat it. This book tackles that hard subject for this culture, I expected it to be a hard read but it really wasn’t, it was an easy read and beautiful. The illustrations are also beautiful, they really help the reader capture what the author saw and experienced in her travels and what other cultures do. For sure recommend to anyone but please just keep an opened mind when reading it.
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Top reviews from the United States

Catherine Johnson
5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting, intensely interesting
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2023
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To say the least this book is a complete eye opener. I barely knew about death practices in my own country let alone how many different ways throughout the world and in history. It really made me think. A lot! Truly excellent writing. Highly recommend whether you're a person that enjoys morbid things or are just comfortable with the reality that we all die.
2 people found this helpful
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Lauren Carnes
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2024
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I recently lost my dad, and this book was a great read! It helps to understand different culture’s response to death and honoring those lost.
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Katie C
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun read
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2024
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An interesting quick read. Love her writing style. I want to get more of her books
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Piyali Mukherjee
4.0 out of 5 stars Moving commentary on life, if not death itself
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2023
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These essays span a range of countries and cultures that Doughty has witnessed processing their dead and their grief. Not only did I learn about the process of embalming, cremating and burial, but also I learned about the emotional value of ritual, of showing up and of how commercialization of deathcare has led to a growing sanitization and suppression of genuine grief.

Some of the essays genuinely made me think about the autonomy that women are allowed to have over their bodies (and whether their choice of death is a final grasping claim for it). Some of the essays also made me realize, as Doughty puts it, that the American need for a dignified aesthetic death actually takes away from the fact that death and grief are emotionally messy. By not providing actual time for the families and loved ones to process the absence of their deceased, to appreciate the decomposing body as not just a corpse but as a vessel of their loved one, and by not providing a safe shameless space for grief, Commercial American funeral services aren't letting people find the emotional connection and closure that death provides.

I also like that despite the constant discussion of death, Doughty's writing has a serious and yet pleasant tone to it. She makes jokes without making fun of the dead or of the sacredness of dying. She writes about her travels in a way that seeks to genuinely explore the cultures that she visits, rather than capture them in some exploitative way. Maybe my final takeaway from this book is that it gave me a lot of consideration on how I would like my body to be handled after death, and asking my parents the same.
8 people found this helpful
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Carrie Chrisman
5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous book
Reviewed in the United States on September 23, 2022
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Interesting informative and gives you a completely different way to view death and the dying. I highly recommend all her books and I am not much into books but hers just have a perfect amount of classy respectful humor within a very well written accounts of her experience working in the death industry through her books I have found death to not be as fearful as it was before learning the depth she bring to life and death. It’s now something I have come to accept as part of life and is all our fate and knowing that I don’t truly fear it as much as fear grief over losing my parents but I will handle it much better after reading her wonderful books and following her on social media
2 people found this helpful
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Ariel B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Read
Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2023
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A wonderful, chuckle-worthy, deep, eye-opening read from a thoughtful and caring author. I've long enjoyed watching Doughty's videos on YouTube, I appreciate the humor and kindness she brings to a sensitive topic, and it continues to ring true in her writing. This book had been on my list for a while and thankfully it was a requirement for my Psychology of Death and Dying class. It is very informative, shares fascinating and captivating stories, and everyone should give it a read.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars enlightened
Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2023
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Doughty’s honesty as she shares her experiences has expanded my perspective on death, grief and how to honor both meaningfully and respectively. The different rituals are humbling and powerful.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Beginning the Encyclopedia of Death Positivity
Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2021
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"No matter what it takes, the hard work begins for the West to haul our fear, shame, and grief surrounding death out into the disinfecting light of the sun."

I was first introduced to the singular energy of Caitlin Doughty via her Youtube channel, Ask a Mortician, as I'm sure many others have as well. To say that Caitlin (and by extension The Order of the Good Death) has changed my life would not quite do her work justice. She changed my life by changing my death, and the way I view it.

Long before Caitlin, I knew that embalming/ burial was just not for me. I always thought cremation was my only other option, and so I settled my mind to it. But just as the book sets out to explain (and in my personal experience, accomplishes), the Western views and in fact culture surrounding death is not only limited, but capitalistic and toxic in its roots. Learning from Caitlin's videos, this book, and The Order, I know with certainty what my death plan is (still leaving room for some improvisation, of course). My sister, who is also a fan, has begun contemplating hers, and together we have began the conversation. We are hoping to soon begin (slowly and unthreateningly) opening the doors of communication with our family members.

Getting back to the subject of the book, I can only speak from the perspective of someone already in agreement wanting to learn more. And I was happy for the education. Learning about other cultures and their relationship with Death and the dead, it brings a sliver of light. That light, unfortunately, also makes the flaws of our own death culture, but hopefully the days to come bring change.

The stories and experiences told through Caitlin's perspective are as ever-charming as she, and I can easily picture her in each situation. These are not unbiased experiences, of course, but is a bias towards a peaceful and dignified relationship with Death a bad thing, honestly? As someone who wants a natural burial and a "green" death, I was thrilled to learn about more options fighting for their rightful place in society. I now know of organizations to fight for, and perhaps donate my body to. The talented illustrations were equal parts entertaining and educational.

If you are reaching for this book out of curiosity (morbid or otherwise), then welcome. I hope you learn something new. I hope it makes you think, perhaps rethink. I hope you can feel Caitlin's passion and drive within the words and pages. Perhaps give a look at her channel and/or her website. Happy reading, fellow and future Deathlings!
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Laura Herrera
5.0 out of 5 stars Great light reading
Reviewed in Germany on July 4, 2023
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I recently lost 2 important people in my life and I can't relate to the way my culture deals with grief. Really enjoy how other cultures do it!
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A McCray
5.0 out of 5 stars Get a copy, for your soul
Reviewed in Canada on January 4, 2021
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Such a beautiful book full of some of the most well-told stories about death, death positivity, and the strangest people that everyone knows a version of. Caitlin is one of my favourite story-tellers in general and you can certainly read this book in her voice at most times. The illustrations are illuminating while going well with a rich text. Also the cover in hardcover and paperback are gorgeous.
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Claire
5.0 out of 5 stars Instructif !
Reviewed in France on October 25, 2021
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Fan de Caitlin et de sa façon de nous parler de la mort. Je suis conquise et je trouve fantastique le travail qu'elle réalise avec sa société et son collectif.
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Magdalena
5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING
Reviewed in Poland on April 19, 2021
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It's realy plesant to read and even by knowing a lot on the topic i was surprised a few times :) And the drawings in it are a realy nice addition. Book came in perfect condition.
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Alba L.
5.0 out of 5 stars Brillate
Reviewed in Spain on March 4, 2022
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Lectura totalmente recomendada, te evade desde el primer momento y no paras hasta terminarlo. Me lo he leído varías veces y lo volveré a leer.
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