“What are you reading?”That’s the question Will Schwalbe asks his mother, Mary Anne, as they sit in the waiting room of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. In 2007, Mary Anne returned from a humanitarian trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan suffering from what her doctors believed was a rare type of hepatitis. Months later she was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer, which is almost always fatal, often in six months or less.
This is the inspiring true story of a son and his mother, who start a “book club” that brings them together as her life comes to a close. Over the next two years, Will and Mary Anne carry on conversations that are both wide-ranging and deeply personal, prompted by an eclectic array of books and a shared passion for reading. Their list jumps from classic to popular, from poetry to mysteries, from fantastic to spiritual. The issues they discuss include questions of faith and courage as well as everyday topics such as expressing gratitude and learning to listen. Throughout, they are constantly reminded of the power of books to comfort us, astonish us, teach us, and tell us what we need to do with our lives and in the world. Reading isn’t the opposite of doing; it’s the opposite of dying.
Will and Mary Anne share their hopes and concerns with each other—and rediscover their lives—through their favorite books. When they read, they aren’t a sick person and a well person, but a mother and a son taking a journey together. The result is a profoundly moving tale of loss that is also a joyful, and often humorous, celebration of life: Will’s love letter to his mother, and theirs to the printed page.
336 pages (October 2012)
Book Page at BookBrowse.
Lit Guide from LitLovers.
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Will Schwalbe on why he wrote The End of Your Life Book Club (Hodder Books):
This title is available for download as an eAudioBook and as an eAudioBook. Learn more about downloadables from the library here.
Title Read-alikes: Latest Readings by Clive James; The Rainbow Comes and Goes by Anderson Cooper; My Bright Abyss by Christian Wiman; Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi; The Things That Need Doing by Sean Manning; Browsings by Michael Dirda; Books by Larry McMurtry; The Last Season by Stuart Stevens; Driving Miss Norma by Tim Bauerschmidt; Dear Life by Rachel Clarke; The Book That Matters Most by Ann Hood; How Shall I Tell the Dog? by Miles Kington; and The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.
I did find myself wishing that some of the books that Schwalbe and his mother read were described in more detail. Luckily, a complete list of the books discussed or mentioned in The End of Your Life Book Club is included in the Appendix. Some of the titles are old favorites of mine and others are ones I'm now eager to read.
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