We all have to go sometime, so why not go in a manner that reflects well on your entire life? With humanity, insight, and occasional humour, author Matt Sturrock has selected from the annals of history an eclectic group of people--an Alexandrian mathematician, a Haitian slave, an English philosopher, a Vietnamese monk--who met the inevitable with élan, unflappability, dignity, or physical courage. Many of these people lived and died continents and millennia apart. They subscribed to creeds the others in these pages would have found alien and unfathomable. Yet they are thrust together here because of their extraordinary strength of character in the face of annihilation. Their stories are irrefutable proof of the old maxim that living and dying well are ultimately inextricable.

Matt Sturrock was born in 1974, and has worked for decades as a bookseller, editor, and freelancer in both Toronto and London, England. He has written for many publications, including the National Post and The Globe & Mail, and is a longtime contributor to the Times Literary Supplement. He currently resides in Vancouver, BC near the base of Mount Fromme. This is his first book.

Matt Sturrock's profile page

LARA GALUSTIAN is an illustrator and bookbinder based in London, England.

Lara Galustian's profile page