The way modern medicine has changed the experience of dying, what the implications of this change are for each of us, and what we would need to do to change a system that knows a lot about prolonging life but little about tending to death. At the heart of this book is something larger and more lasting than even its agenda for how to effect change - it is a deeply humane portrayal of how our society copes with who we really are. We are mortal beings. And in that is every important thing to know about how we must live.