In 1995, at the age of 42, Robert McCrum suffered a dramatic and
near-fatal stroke, the subject of his acclaimed memoir My Year Off.
Ever since that life-changing event, McCrum has lived in the shadow of
death, unavoidably aware of his own mortality. And now, 21 years on, he
is noticing a change: his friends are joining him there. Death has
become his contemporaries' every third thought. The question is no
longer "Who am I?" but "How long have I got?" and "What happens next?"
This book takes us on a journey through a year and towards death itself.
As he acknowledges his own and his friends' aging, McCrum confronts an
existential question: in a world where we have learnt to live well at
all costs, can we make peace with what Freud calls "the necessity of
dying?" Searching for answers leads him to others for advice and wisdom,
and this book is populated by the voices of brain surgeons,
psychologists, cancer patients, hospice workers, writers and poets.
Witty, lucid and provocative, this book is an enthralling exploration of
what it means to approach the "end game," and begin to recognize,
perhaps reluctantly, that we are not immortal. Deeply personal and yet
always universal, this is a book for anyone who finds themselves
preoccupied by matters of life and death. It is both guide and
companion.
