cover image Death: The Trip of a Lifetime

Death: The Trip of a Lifetime

Greg Palmer. HarperOne, $23 (294pp) ISBN 978-0-06-250802-7

In this surprising, occasionally sobering but often lighthearted travelogue designed to accompany a PBS series, Palmer, a broadcaster, playwright and filmmaker, examines death images across the world, interviewing people or just poking around and examining horror books, cartoons and other entertainments. He notes the tranquil names often given to cemeteries, like the ubiquitous Pleasant Hill or Taiwan's Happy Peace Garden. He reminds us that death is celebrated in holidays commemorating public figures and war heroes. In lively anecdotes, Palmer reports on the attitudes towards death declared by a Ghanaian witch doctor, a Buddhist priest, an AIDS hospice patient, the head of a cryonics foundation and a failed suicide. The author concludes by describing concepts of afterlife as held by religions, most of which promise some form of immortality. Illustrations not seen by PW . $50,000 ad/promo; author tour. (Nov.)