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My Father's Wake
- Narrated by: Kevin Toolis
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
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My Father's Wake
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Publisher's Summary
An intimate, lyrical look at the ancient rite of the Irish wake - and the Irish way of overcoming our fear of death
Death is a whisper for most of us. Instinctively we feel we should dim the lights, pull the curtains, and speak softly. But on a remote island off the coast of Ireland's County Mayo, death has a louder voice. Each day, along with reports of incoming Atlantic storms, the local radio runs a daily roll call of the recently departed. The islanders go in great numbers, young and old alike, to be with their dead. They keep vigil with the corpse and the bereaved company through the long hours of the night. They dig the grave with their own hands and carry the coffin on their own shoulders. The islanders cherish the dead - and amid the sorrow, they celebrate life, too.
In My Father's Wake, acclaimed author and award-winning filmmaker Kevin Toolis unforgettably describes his own father's wake and explores the wider history and significance of this ancient and eternal Irish ritual. Perhaps we, too, can all find a better way to deal with our mortality - by living and loving as the Irish do.
What the critics say
"A heartwarming and very personal account of a life well-lived." (Irish Times)
"The windswept Irish island of My Father's Wake is one of the final remote outposts of true death engagement in the Western world. Toolis's book is both memoir and anthropology, and serves as a refreshing counterpoint to the industrialized, for-profit death industry we've come to wrongly believe is our only option." (Caitlin Doughty, author of the New York Times best sellers Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and From Here to Eternity)
"A long meditation on death, dying, and our attitudes to mortality - our own and others'.... Toolis posits an acceptance of the inevitable which, while it does not banish the pain of grief, invests it with a resignation and a grace that is, in essence, healing and somehow life-affirming." (The Guardian)
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What listeners say about My Father's Wake
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rusty Shacklefurt
- 2018-09-19
Great journey and perspective
I loved the imagery and discriptions in this book. I appreciate the critical eye on the "western death machine" that has institutionalized how many of us handle our dying and dead. I especially loved the chapter on TB. Thanks for sharing. It's worth checking out. #Audible1
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