In How to Die: A Book About Being Alive, Ray Robertson meets Montaigneâs challenge, arguing with characteristic
candour and wit that if we gain a clearer understanding of death, weâll also better understand life. Contending that
human beings tend to prefer illusion to realityâand so readily flock to the consoling myths of philosophy, religion,
and societyâRobertson echoes Publius Syrus, the first-century Roman who claimed, âThey live ill who expect to
live always.â
An absorbing excursion through some of Western literatureâs most compelling works on the subject of mortality,
How to Die: A Book About Being Alive is an anecdotally-laden appeal for cultivating an honest relationship with death
in the belief that, if we do so, weâll know more about what gives meaning to our lives. Pondering death isnât morbid or
frivolous, Robertson arguesânot unless we believe that asking what makes for a meaningful life is as well.