his wife wrote the last chapter

read this in three sittings and the third one was sat outside on the drive, because I got home and didn't want to go in yet.

its not really a book about dying. its a book about a man who spent his whole adult life being the person in the room who knows what happens next, and then losing that. thats the part that got me professionally. we are all so used to standing on the other side of it. when he describes going through his own scans, reading them the way he would read anybody elses, I felt sick in a way that is quite hard to explain to people who dont do this job.

the writing is properly good, which I wasnt expecting. he can do a sentence. some of the philosophy sections drag and I skimmed maybe half a dozen pages of the Cambridge stuff, sorry.

and then Lucy writes the epilogue. I've read a lot of things about death, its sort of an occupational hazard, and nothing has ever landed on me like those last few pages. she is a doctor too and it shows. its precise. she tells you exactly what happened and doesnt decorate any of it.

I dont lend this one out because I want it on the shelf where I can see it. bought a second copy for the ward and it walked within a fortnight, so, somebody needed it more than the shelf did