A Preparation for Death

By Greg Baxter

Book Overview

'Traditional autobiography is composed after the experience has passed. I wrote this book in the very panic of the experiences that inspired it ... '

In his early thirties Greg Baxter found himself in a strange place. He hated his job he was drinking excessively he was sabotaging his most important relationships and he was no longer doing the thing he cared about most: writing. Strangest of all at this time he started teaching evening classes in creative writing - and his life changed utterly.

A Preparation for Death is a document of the chaos and discovery of that time and of the experiences that led Greg Baxter to that strange place - an extraordinarily intimate account of literary failure (and its consequences) personal decay and redemption through reading writing and truth-telling. Studded with vivid loving portraits of the people closest to him - his Austrian grandmother who narrowly survived the Second World War; his mother and father both described with heartbreakingly close attention; and his cousin Walter whose own demons provide a striking counterpoint to the author's - it is above all a stunningly vivid and searching self-portrait: possibly the most honest book you'll ever read.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141048441
• ISBN13: 9780141048444
• Release Date: May 2011
• Publisher: Penguin Ireland
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.6" x 5.1"