The Art of Death

“This book is a kind of prayer for her mother—an act of mourning and remembrance, a purposeful act of grieving . . . Danticat writes beautifully about fellow writers, dissecting their magic and technique with a reader’s passion and a craftsman’s appraising eye . . . As a grieving daughter, she wants to understand how others have grappled with this essential fact of human existence; and as a writer—a ‘sentence-maker,’ in the words of a DeLillo character—she wants to learn how to use language to try to express the inexpressible, to use her art to mourn.”—The New York Times

“Danticat taps into such tough subject matter . . . with a trickless, spellbinding clarity . . . This small book is a bracingly clear-eyed take on its subject.”—The Boston Globe

“Danticat’s is a memoir written in a manner akin to the circular, overlapping and overwhelming processes of grief and mourning; she layers her story with other poems, memoirs, novels and essays about death, scaling the personal to wider-ranging political and ecological catastrophes . . . Deeply felt.”—Los Angeles Times

“The Art of Death offers an inspired syllabus of Danticat’s own design . . . What’s important about reading great writing about death—or in the case of The Art of Death, reading about reading about it—is that it teaches us how to live. Rather than shy away from these books, we should turn to them in all seasons.”—Chicago Tribune

“In The Art of Death, Danticat writes clearly and judiciously about a subject that is challenging for both writers and people to face directly. Her range and grasp of literary references is wide and powerful.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“Consider [The Art of Death] a master class in literature and a guidebook for the most universal human experience.”—BUST Magazine

“The Art of Death is a rare blend of criticism and memoir, and it reaches a breathtakingly touching conclusion in the last chapter.”—Garrand Conley, Slice Magazine

“Danticat’s literary reach is impressive—especially so in a book that spans fewer than 200 pages . . . The Art of Death overflows with life, quietly but insistently inspiring anyone reading it to make good use of what remains of that precious gift.”—Shelf Awareness

“The author lends a deeply personal touch to this study . . . Danticat takes on an unpleasant topic with sensitivity and passion.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“In a series of linked essays on overlapping topics such as suicide, close calls, and how we relate to catastrophic events, she both shows how great writers make death meaningful, and explores her own raw grief over her mother’s death. This slim volume wraps literary criticism, philosophy, and memoir into a gracefully circling whole, echoing the nature of grief as ‘circles and circles of sorrow.’”—Publishers Weekly