The Book of Resting Places: A Personal History of Where We Lay the Dead

By Thomas Mira y Lopez

Book Overview

"The Book of Resting Places is Mira y Lopez's account of his travels, from a cemetery to a crematorium to a cryonics company . . . He's looking for the good death, somewhere, anywhere." --The New Yorker

In the aftermath of his father's untimely death and his family's indecision over what to do with the remains, Thomas Mira y Lopez became obsessed with the type and variety of places where we lay the dead to rest. The result is a singular collection of essays that weaves together history, mythology, journalism, and personal narrative into the author's search for a place to process grief.

Mira y Lopez explores unusual hallowed grounds--from the world's largest cryonics institute in southern Arizona to a set of Roman catacombs being digested by modern bacteria, to his family's burial plots in the mountains outside Rio de Janeiro to a nineteenth-century desert cemetery that was relocated for the building of a modern courthouse. The Book of Resting Places examines these overlooked spaces and what they tell us about ourselves and the passing of those we love--how we grieve them, and how we attempt to forget them.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1619021234
• ISBN13: 9781619021235
• Release Date: November 2017
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.4"