Dear Life: A Doctor's Story of Love and Loss - Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award

Rachel Clarke

5 Reviews

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Autobiography: science, technology & medicine, Medicine

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Abacus
- Paperback Sep 8, 2020 | 9780349143934 | RRP $24.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Jan 30, 2020 | 9781408712511 | RRP $12.99 Buy Now
- Audiobook Jan 30, 2020 | 9781405543439 | RRP $35.99 Buy Now
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Little, Brown
- Paperback Sep 8, 2020 | 9780349143934 | RRP $24.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Jan 30, 2020 | 9781408712511 | RRP $12.99 Buy Now
- Audiobook Jan 30, 2020 | 9781405543439 | RRP $35.99 Buy Now
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Little, Brown Audio
- Paperback Sep 8, 2020 | 9780349143934 | RRP $24.99 Buy Now
- e-Book Jan 30, 2020 | 9781408712511 | RRP $12.99 Buy Now
- Audiobook Jan 30, 2020 | 9781405543439 | RRP $35.99 Buy Now
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A brilliant combination of lyrical memoir and guide to living and dying, comparable to Kathryn Mannix's WITH THE END IN MIND and Julia Samuel's GRIEF WORKS, from the author of YOUR LIFE IN MY HANDS.

Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award

'What a remarkable book this is; tender, funny, brave, heartfelt, radiant with love and life. It brought me often to laughter and - several times - to tears. It sings with joy and kindness' Robert Macfarlane

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Your Life in My Hands comes this vibrant, tender and deeply personal memoir that finds light and love in the darkest of places.

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke chooses to inhabit a place many people would find too tragic to contemplate. Every day she tries to bring care and comfort to those reaching the end of their lives and to help make dying more bearable.

Rachel's training was put to the test in 2017 when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She learned that nothing - even the best palliative care - can sugar-coat the pain of losing someone you love.

And yet, she argues, in a hospice there is more of what matters in life - more love, more strength, more kindness, more joy, more tenderness, more grace, more compassion - than you could ever imagine. For if there is a difference between people who know they are dying and the rest of us, it is simply this: that the terminally ill know their time is running out, while we live as though we have all the time in the world.

Dear Life is a book about the vital importance of human connection, by the doctor we would all want by our sides at a time of crisis. It is a love letter - to a father, to a profession, to life itself.

Praise for Dear Life: A Doctor's Story of Love and Loss - Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award

This is a wonderful book. Rachel takes the worst life can throw at us and shows us the beauty in it
A truly wonderful book. Read it
Heart-wrenchingly tender - Observer
She writes with a tender, lyrical beauty - Sunday Times
Her words are brimful of love, grace and kindness - Guardian