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The Institute for Creative Dying
A psychological thriller by Jarred Thompson, winner of the Afritondo Literary Prize.
You wouldn’t know it was there, the unnumbered house behind the iron-grille gate, just below the craggy rocks of Northcliff ridge. To the untrained eye the rambling property might seem neglected, with its tangle of trees and untamed indigenous bush. But there is purpose here, and a peaceful, subterranean focus on all that withers and dies. Five strangers –
a model, a former nun, a couple in crisis, and an offender newly released from prison – have come here, to this place, to discover an end to life as they’ve known it. Placing their trust in their hosts, the Mortician and Mustafa, the five open their minds and bodies to an alternative experience. Not all of them will survive – or at least not in the way they imagined – but all of them will be shown the limits of their living.
The Institute for Creative Dying is vivid and visceral, unique in its bold and imaginative exploration of mortality and the interconnectedness of all forms of being.
REVIEWS
‘This is everything that a great and impactful debut novel should be – brilliant, daring and ambitious.’SIPHIWE GLORIA NDLOVU, award-winning author.
‘Equal parts morbid and miraculous, this novel explores the intricacies and intimacies of death and dying in wholly original ways. The result is an astonishing, unique piece of work.’MEGAN ROSS, writer.
‘Jarred Thompson proves why he’s one of South Africa’s most daring young writers. Macabre, weird, zany and decidedly ominous, this gutsy debut novel explores the ethics of death and the value of life.’KHANYA MTSHALI, writer and cultural critic
'Rendered in vivid and highly imaginative detail, this story – seemingly about death – offers new understandings about what it truly means to be alive. Thompson is one of the most promising voices on the African continent.’RÉMY NGAMIJE, author of The Eternal Audience of One.
THE AUTHOR
JARRED THOMPSON won the 2020 Afritondo Prize and has been the recipient of several prestigious scholarships, including The Global Excellence and Stature Scholarship, The Chris van Wyk Creative Writing Scholarship, two National Arts Council Grants and an NRF nGAP Scholarship. He is a literary and cultural studies researcher and educator and works as a lecturer in the English Department at the University of Pretoria. The Institute for Creative Dying is his debut novel.
You wouldn’t know it was there, the unnumbered house behind the iron-grille gate, just below the craggy rocks of Northcliff ridge. To the untrained eye the rambling property might seem neglected, with its tangle of trees and untamed indigenous bush. But there is purpose here, and a peaceful, subterranean focus on all that withers and dies. Five strangers –
a model, a former nun, a couple in crisis, and an offender newly released from prison – have come here, to this place, to discover an end to life as they’ve known it. Placing their trust in their hosts, the Mortician and Mustafa, the five open their minds and bodies to an alternative experience. Not all of them will survive – or at least not in the way they imagined – but all of them will be shown the limits of their living.
The Institute for Creative Dying is vivid and visceral, unique in its bold and imaginative exploration of mortality and the interconnectedness of all forms of being.
REVIEWS
‘This is everything that a great and impactful debut novel should be – brilliant, daring and ambitious.’SIPHIWE GLORIA NDLOVU, award-winning author.
‘Equal parts morbid and miraculous, this novel explores the intricacies and intimacies of death and dying in wholly original ways. The result is an astonishing, unique piece of work.’MEGAN ROSS, writer.
‘Jarred Thompson proves why he’s one of South Africa’s most daring young writers. Macabre, weird, zany and decidedly ominous, this gutsy debut novel explores the ethics of death and the value of life.’KHANYA MTSHALI, writer and cultural critic
'Rendered in vivid and highly imaginative detail, this story – seemingly about death – offers new understandings about what it truly means to be alive. Thompson is one of the most promising voices on the African continent.’RÉMY NGAMIJE, author of The Eternal Audience of One.
THE AUTHOR
JARRED THOMPSON won the 2020 Afritondo Prize and has been the recipient of several prestigious scholarships, including The Global Excellence and Stature Scholarship, The Chris van Wyk Creative Writing Scholarship, two National Arts Council Grants and an NRF nGAP Scholarship. He is a literary and cultural studies researcher and educator and works as a lecturer in the English Department at the University of Pretoria. The Institute for Creative Dying is his debut novel.
- GenresFictionSouth Africa
383 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 1, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 13, 2023
Disclaimer: Pan Macmillan SA kindly sent me an uncorrected proof copy to read in exchange for an honest review.
Hidden away in the hills of Northcliffe Ridge outside of Johannesburg is a rounded triple-storey house made of stone and glass. Surrounding the house is a luscious garden of indigenous foliage, and trees that keep many secrets. There are many ways to get into this house, but only one true way to leave.
In this strange place referred to as The Institute, Mustafa and The Mortician consider themselves “specialists in Alternative Palliative Care”, and they have dreams of creating the perfect place for people to come to terms with their mortality and their impending death. This is a place where people will learn to live, and also to die.
The methods used are unconventional, and often involve the ritualistic use of marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, and various herbs. Those who come to the Institute take a variety of alternative medicines and tinctures made from what is grown on the very same grounds and cared for by the very same patients who partake of them. When you’re a patient at the Institute you must become a productive member of all that goes on there. You become a part of the Institute in more ways than one.
“It felt more like a place for experiment, where he was being allowed to shatter old habits and shock his system, discovering new ways to hold the world in his mind.”
There are five patients currently occupying the property, excluding the two founders. Dianne is a former nun who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. She is the oldest patient and misses her sisters whom she explained her sudden absence with only a note left on the family fridge.
Angelique is a fashion model and a huge hit on social media. She considers herself to be quite the influencer and is troubled by her lack of transparency with her followers regarding her failing heart and kidneys.
Tobias is a chronic alcoholic who has just been released from prison because he has a terminal illness and is not long for this world. Once upon a time, he pretended to be the pastor of a mega-church and scammed money from his parishioners.
Finally, Tobias and Daniel are a couple who came to the Institute to work on their failing relationships. Whilst neither of them is terminally ill, Daniel struggles with severe depression, and Tobias, who damaged his leg very badly, has had to learn to walk with a crutch.
“Some of us are terminals, others chronics. It’s a dumb lingo, just go with it.”
The founders of the Institute have their own crosses to bear. Mustafa is HIV positive and relies on his dose of antiretrovirals and his friendship with The Mortician to keep his fear of death at bay. As a young boy he worked at a funeral parlor, and therefore mortality is something he ponders daily. The Mortician inherited her fascination with the process, and the business of death, from her father, whose unconventional beliefs and practices caused him to be shunned by the community.
The Mortician and Mustafa have dreams of creating a place where the dying can come to terms with their failing bodies and embrace the organic process that their death will amount to. With rituals, medicines, hallucinogens, and alternative therapies and treatments, death (or dying) becomes an exclusive experience rather than the end after the means.
The patients develop a fractured and flawed bond after a violent incident at the Institute breaks through the Institute’s walls of secrecy. Not everyone is happy that this place exists, and it would seem that its very foundation will remain shaky if both the patients and the founders cannot put their trust in one another, and themselves.
Jarred Thompson’s debut novel is pure genius and is both refreshing and uncomfortable to read, in the best possible way. It strips the reader of their expectations and instead reveals an almost primal approach to death and dying. In The Institute For Creative Dying death is the character that waits in the wings and doesn’t care that we find its presence inconvenient. This is a heartwarming and honest novel full of strange and wonderful endings, and beginnings. A remarkable debut!
”Do you have any idea about how you might like to die one day?... Most people usually say they want to go quietly in their sleep, preferably at home, surrounded by people who love them. Which is all good and dandy. I’ve found, though, that some want to experiment a little near the end. To leave the world with a bang, instead of a whimper.”
Hidden away in the hills of Northcliffe Ridge outside of Johannesburg is a rounded triple-storey house made of stone and glass. Surrounding the house is a luscious garden of indigenous foliage, and trees that keep many secrets. There are many ways to get into this house, but only one true way to leave.
In this strange place referred to as The Institute, Mustafa and The Mortician consider themselves “specialists in Alternative Palliative Care”, and they have dreams of creating the perfect place for people to come to terms with their mortality and their impending death. This is a place where people will learn to live, and also to die.
The methods used are unconventional, and often involve the ritualistic use of marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, and various herbs. Those who come to the Institute take a variety of alternative medicines and tinctures made from what is grown on the very same grounds and cared for by the very same patients who partake of them. When you’re a patient at the Institute you must become a productive member of all that goes on there. You become a part of the Institute in more ways than one.
“It felt more like a place for experiment, where he was being allowed to shatter old habits and shock his system, discovering new ways to hold the world in his mind.”
There are five patients currently occupying the property, excluding the two founders. Dianne is a former nun who was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. She is the oldest patient and misses her sisters whom she explained her sudden absence with only a note left on the family fridge.
Angelique is a fashion model and a huge hit on social media. She considers herself to be quite the influencer and is troubled by her lack of transparency with her followers regarding her failing heart and kidneys.
Tobias is a chronic alcoholic who has just been released from prison because he has a terminal illness and is not long for this world. Once upon a time, he pretended to be the pastor of a mega-church and scammed money from his parishioners.
Finally, Tobias and Daniel are a couple who came to the Institute to work on their failing relationships. Whilst neither of them is terminally ill, Daniel struggles with severe depression, and Tobias, who damaged his leg very badly, has had to learn to walk with a crutch.
“Some of us are terminals, others chronics. It’s a dumb lingo, just go with it.”
The founders of the Institute have their own crosses to bear. Mustafa is HIV positive and relies on his dose of antiretrovirals and his friendship with The Mortician to keep his fear of death at bay. As a young boy he worked at a funeral parlor, and therefore mortality is something he ponders daily. The Mortician inherited her fascination with the process, and the business of death, from her father, whose unconventional beliefs and practices caused him to be shunned by the community.
The Mortician and Mustafa have dreams of creating a place where the dying can come to terms with their failing bodies and embrace the organic process that their death will amount to. With rituals, medicines, hallucinogens, and alternative therapies and treatments, death (or dying) becomes an exclusive experience rather than the end after the means.
The patients develop a fractured and flawed bond after a violent incident at the Institute breaks through the Institute’s walls of secrecy. Not everyone is happy that this place exists, and it would seem that its very foundation will remain shaky if both the patients and the founders cannot put their trust in one another, and themselves.
Jarred Thompson’s debut novel is pure genius and is both refreshing and uncomfortable to read, in the best possible way. It strips the reader of their expectations and instead reveals an almost primal approach to death and dying. In The Institute For Creative Dying death is the character that waits in the wings and doesn’t care that we find its presence inconvenient. This is a heartwarming and honest novel full of strange and wonderful endings, and beginnings. A remarkable debut!
”Do you have any idea about how you might like to die one day?... Most people usually say they want to go quietly in their sleep, preferably at home, surrounded by people who love them. Which is all good and dandy. I’ve found, though, that some want to experiment a little near the end. To leave the world with a bang, instead of a whimper.”
September 1, 2025
Beautiful writing. Back half of the book felt a bit rushed. But the whole thing still had a contemplative vibe- it asked readers to reflect on existence quite a bit. And I didn’t mind the ending even thought it felt rushed.
April 30, 2023
I’m not sure how to review this book to be honest. It is visually descriptive, the prose is beautiful. The story is about a disparate group of people finding a way to live as they are dying at a hospice like no other. It is complex and weird but strangely compelling.
The characters are so different and yet all flawed and so human. There is an otherworldly feeling to their experiences but it is very much grounded in real life. Some of the “treatments” are wacky and seem pointless and yet they seem fitting in the environment created here.
I enjoyed it but this is an experience rather than just a story. It challenges the notion of end of life care, what does it mean, what do you need, do we just walk through our lives mindlessly until our inevitable end. What if we lived fully whilst plummeting towards the grave, could the closeness of our end force us to live and see life as it really is. Heavy questions with no easy answers, this book forces you to look at the purpose of your existence and it’s ultimate conclusion, fascinating.
The characters are so different and yet all flawed and so human. There is an otherworldly feeling to their experiences but it is very much grounded in real life. Some of the “treatments” are wacky and seem pointless and yet they seem fitting in the environment created here.
I enjoyed it but this is an experience rather than just a story. It challenges the notion of end of life care, what does it mean, what do you need, do we just walk through our lives mindlessly until our inevitable end. What if we lived fully whilst plummeting towards the grave, could the closeness of our end force us to live and see life as it really is. Heavy questions with no easy answers, this book forces you to look at the purpose of your existence and it’s ultimate conclusion, fascinating.
April 15, 2023
Only after reading this book, I realised that “Creative Dying” was a thing. Google is your friend. Yes, you can check it out, there is an actual movement, from their website quoting the following:
“Creative Dying: A philosophy that aims to bring together ancient wisdom with modern palliative care to facilitate healing and approach death as a time for growth.”
This website is insightful – do check it out! www.creativedying.org
“No one ever asks us if we want to be alive, doc. It just happens. Why wouldn’t it be the same with death? We’re always getting things we don’t ask for.”
Well, even before that realisation (i.e., that this movement isn’t just a wonderful concept imagined by the author), this approach to our end of life makes sense to me. And before reading the book, I honestly didn’t think that such an option exists. It can be depressing to think about our last months on earth – and this book made me ponder my own mortality a lot – but what if you can end your time on earth with calm acceptance and peace?
“Comfort is one of our top priorities. The best decisions are made from a position of comfort.” I looked down a little, looking back the way I came. “Fear is normal,” says Mustafa, noticing my slacked pace. “If you’d like to turn back now, you’re welcome to. This isn’t Sodom and Gomorrah.” His body faces forward, but his face is turned back to me. “I don’t want to be afraid.”
So, do we have such an institute in South Africa? Richly pictured by author Jarred Thompson, this mysterious house in Northcliff in Johannesburg had me fascinated from the get-go. He sure knows how to set the scene. From the imposing house to the gorgeous, luxurious gardens I was there, every step of the way. The treehouses and opulent rooms were vivid in my mind’s eye.
"From the balcony I watch fish rise and fall in the rock pools. Must be nice to be surrounded by all that water, moving through it as it moves through you. No matter what you do or where you go, when you’re a fish water will always be there, holding you, even as you sleep."
But of course, the book is not about the house itself, it is all about the inhabitants and guests.
The custodians of this institute are the Mortician, and her partner, Mustafa. As the plot unfolds, it was fascinating to hear the stories of each of the guests Daniel, Lucas, Dianne, Tobias, and Angelique. How did they end up here? What will they get from this experience? And yes, morbidly but justly, will not survive their stay? Told from each of the role character’s point of view, every page is a new reveal, another layer that is peeled away.
And even behind that question, I must also state that it isn’t just about who death and dying. What is one’s mental state of mind when you know that the end is here. Where does that journey take you. How do you accept it – if possible?
"She thought about their time at Bridge Builders Hospice: how people passed through those bedrooms like ghosts on wrecked rowboats, incapable of redirecting course from the approaching cliff. She had witnessed it many times: the moment dying became a letting, and the currents plunged their patients, headfirst, into waterfalls so misty it was like sailing through cloud. Resist it nor not, it made no difference."
Whilst trying to answer the question about the meaning of life and find an angle for the existential human condition, can it be that there is maybe something more sinister or suspect at play at this secretive residence? What is the Mortician and Mustafa’s motivation?
“Being here reminds me of the immensity that’s oddly quite comforting. Depending on what story you’re telling. The supercluster of galaxies that we’re part of – Laniakea – has given us these few billions of years, to play.”
“What does Laniakea mean?”
“Immeasurable heaven.”
The book is filled with complex characters, diverse personalities, and intriguing ethical dilemmas. The author’s insight into the human condition, alternative therapies and morality is highly commendable.
“Dianne, when you’re reconciled to the reality that you have been dying, that death is the condition of your survival, your growth, the very earth you walk on… you feel a shift, an appreciation.”
• Immersive plot
• Morally grey characters
• Vividly descriptive
• Thought-provoking
• Relatable characters
This was the difference between cured and healed, she thought. One you leave behind, another you live with.
“The Institute for Creative Dying” is wildly imaginative, deeply moving, and unique, I throughly enjoyed this.
What a wonderful debut novel!
With thanks to Exclusive Books for the opportunity to read this book!
“Creative Dying: A philosophy that aims to bring together ancient wisdom with modern palliative care to facilitate healing and approach death as a time for growth.”
This website is insightful – do check it out! www.creativedying.org
“No one ever asks us if we want to be alive, doc. It just happens. Why wouldn’t it be the same with death? We’re always getting things we don’t ask for.”
Well, even before that realisation (i.e., that this movement isn’t just a wonderful concept imagined by the author), this approach to our end of life makes sense to me. And before reading the book, I honestly didn’t think that such an option exists. It can be depressing to think about our last months on earth – and this book made me ponder my own mortality a lot – but what if you can end your time on earth with calm acceptance and peace?
“Comfort is one of our top priorities. The best decisions are made from a position of comfort.” I looked down a little, looking back the way I came. “Fear is normal,” says Mustafa, noticing my slacked pace. “If you’d like to turn back now, you’re welcome to. This isn’t Sodom and Gomorrah.” His body faces forward, but his face is turned back to me. “I don’t want to be afraid.”
So, do we have such an institute in South Africa? Richly pictured by author Jarred Thompson, this mysterious house in Northcliff in Johannesburg had me fascinated from the get-go. He sure knows how to set the scene. From the imposing house to the gorgeous, luxurious gardens I was there, every step of the way. The treehouses and opulent rooms were vivid in my mind’s eye.
"From the balcony I watch fish rise and fall in the rock pools. Must be nice to be surrounded by all that water, moving through it as it moves through you. No matter what you do or where you go, when you’re a fish water will always be there, holding you, even as you sleep."
But of course, the book is not about the house itself, it is all about the inhabitants and guests.
The custodians of this institute are the Mortician, and her partner, Mustafa. As the plot unfolds, it was fascinating to hear the stories of each of the guests Daniel, Lucas, Dianne, Tobias, and Angelique. How did they end up here? What will they get from this experience? And yes, morbidly but justly, will not survive their stay? Told from each of the role character’s point of view, every page is a new reveal, another layer that is peeled away.
And even behind that question, I must also state that it isn’t just about who death and dying. What is one’s mental state of mind when you know that the end is here. Where does that journey take you. How do you accept it – if possible?
"She thought about their time at Bridge Builders Hospice: how people passed through those bedrooms like ghosts on wrecked rowboats, incapable of redirecting course from the approaching cliff. She had witnessed it many times: the moment dying became a letting, and the currents plunged their patients, headfirst, into waterfalls so misty it was like sailing through cloud. Resist it nor not, it made no difference."
Whilst trying to answer the question about the meaning of life and find an angle for the existential human condition, can it be that there is maybe something more sinister or suspect at play at this secretive residence? What is the Mortician and Mustafa’s motivation?
“Being here reminds me of the immensity that’s oddly quite comforting. Depending on what story you’re telling. The supercluster of galaxies that we’re part of – Laniakea – has given us these few billions of years, to play.”
“What does Laniakea mean?”
“Immeasurable heaven.”
The book is filled with complex characters, diverse personalities, and intriguing ethical dilemmas. The author’s insight into the human condition, alternative therapies and morality is highly commendable.
“Dianne, when you’re reconciled to the reality that you have been dying, that death is the condition of your survival, your growth, the very earth you walk on… you feel a shift, an appreciation.”
• Immersive plot
• Morally grey characters
• Vividly descriptive
• Thought-provoking
• Relatable characters
This was the difference between cured and healed, she thought. One you leave behind, another you live with.
“The Institute for Creative Dying” is wildly imaginative, deeply moving, and unique, I throughly enjoyed this.
What a wonderful debut novel!
With thanks to Exclusive Books for the opportunity to read this book!
September 25, 2023
“the difference between cured and healed … One you leave behind … [the] other you live with.”
This book deeply explores what it is to live with pain and loss, the kind you can't leave behind except through death. I am amazed how sure and deep the author is able to go on these subjects while he himself is so young. Maybe it is as one of his characters says “there are parts of us neither young nor old.”
And I think he gets something quite profound about loss as a normal part of life
Its setting in South Africa is apt - the land having endured centuries of sustained intimacy with violence and deprivation, death and loss of all kinds. The same land blessed with people who retain an extraordinary amount of life energy, curiosity and a deep urge to find better ways through it all.
All along, Thompson describes what is happening with a loose and lyrical style that for me hit the nail on the head about 95% of the time. He zooms from the nature of the rocks and lizards and hadedas on Johannesburg’s rocky outcrops to the way people feel when they get diagnosed with serious illness. He seems just as comfortable exploring the pathways of neurotransmission for our brains to respond to triggers. And the way he describes the utter chaos brought on in the presence of serious illness and death is for me very profound.
It’s more than 200 pages before the true purpose of the Institute is explicitly stated. Residents range from “chronic” to “terminal” – people who have had the rug pulled out from under any possible dreams of normal life. They are drawn to explore myriad ways to coax and prepare body, mind and soul to cope with chronic illness and approaching death. Their hosts in the Institute, who are something like death doulas, take them on ancient and very modern trips of all sorts into their fears, their pains and their losses. The residents respond with a remarkable range of avoidance and acceptance, passion and passivity, dissociation and engagement. And we see how just because you are sick or dying, this doesn’t mean your “normal” social urges and difficulties don’t continue.
I include the word “modern” not because pain and loss and death are new but because the story includes ingesting psilocybin, encounters with contemporary urban pirates, sensory deprivation chambers and more. But the novel works mainly because it dares to confront ancient truths about the transience of life, the universality of loss and pain, and the transformative potentials of both acceptance and passion.
The book also tries to explore what it is like to die. It feels younger and shakier on this topic, as one might expect from an author who is so young. But who knows? Maybe he is closer to the truth about death than I realise. As far as I know, neither he nor I have actually fully been there.
I loved the way the author compressed his understanding of South Africa into one paragraph on page 287:
This book deeply explores what it is to live with pain and loss, the kind you can't leave behind except through death. I am amazed how sure and deep the author is able to go on these subjects while he himself is so young. Maybe it is as one of his characters says “there are parts of us neither young nor old.”
And I think he gets something quite profound about loss as a normal part of life
Everywhere I turned, there was just … loss. I had to find some morsel of myself that didn’t depend on affection from someone else.The Institute for Creative Dying is housed in a huge labyrinthine magical multi-layered structure, slivered in between the relative normality of Johannesburg suburban homes. From the early pages we are invited into a very realistic kind of magical realism that delves down to the microscopic science of how things work and zooms out into the biggest existential dilemmas and truths. The physical building blossoms into a place where people willingly embrace the radical uncertainty of life.
Its setting in South Africa is apt - the land having endured centuries of sustained intimacy with violence and deprivation, death and loss of all kinds. The same land blessed with people who retain an extraordinary amount of life energy, curiosity and a deep urge to find better ways through it all.
All along, Thompson describes what is happening with a loose and lyrical style that for me hit the nail on the head about 95% of the time. He zooms from the nature of the rocks and lizards and hadedas on Johannesburg’s rocky outcrops to the way people feel when they get diagnosed with serious illness. He seems just as comfortable exploring the pathways of neurotransmission for our brains to respond to triggers. And the way he describes the utter chaos brought on in the presence of serious illness and death is for me very profound.
It’s more than 200 pages before the true purpose of the Institute is explicitly stated. Residents range from “chronic” to “terminal” – people who have had the rug pulled out from under any possible dreams of normal life. They are drawn to explore myriad ways to coax and prepare body, mind and soul to cope with chronic illness and approaching death. Their hosts in the Institute, who are something like death doulas, take them on ancient and very modern trips of all sorts into their fears, their pains and their losses. The residents respond with a remarkable range of avoidance and acceptance, passion and passivity, dissociation and engagement. And we see how just because you are sick or dying, this doesn’t mean your “normal” social urges and difficulties don’t continue.
I include the word “modern” not because pain and loss and death are new but because the story includes ingesting psilocybin, encounters with contemporary urban pirates, sensory deprivation chambers and more. But the novel works mainly because it dares to confront ancient truths about the transience of life, the universality of loss and pain, and the transformative potentials of both acceptance and passion.
The book also tries to explore what it is like to die. It feels younger and shakier on this topic, as one might expect from an author who is so young. But who knows? Maybe he is closer to the truth about death than I realise. As far as I know, neither he nor I have actually fully been there.
I loved the way the author compressed his understanding of South Africa into one paragraph on page 287:
Apartheid – the tenebrous bogeyman that most people agreed had had a fruitful life for a select few and, post ’94, had gone about disguising its fruits in plain sight. This bogeyman had transformed itself with such equanimity over the last decade that today the majority were left wondering where all the fruit had gone, while leaders seemed stumped as to how to take it all back without snapping the stems from which the fruits grew.In the end, I feel, the author proposes through the voice of one of his characters that in a post-post-modern world people can “invent their own rituals for personal transition and new beginnings. These rituals [don’t] have to last forever. They [can] change and adapt to the demands of the moment.” Maybe he is onto something.
November 12, 2023
While this was touch and go from the start, I am genuinely happy I finished this one. While I did enjoy this book immensely I can see how this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea BUT if you can give it a chance..
This was gifted to me by PanMacmillian SA for an honest review.
What is death, and what does it mean to us? Well we get to explore this with Mustafa and the Mortician as they take us on a journey in their wellness centre. This book follows 5 individuals as they come to terms with the trajectory of their lives.
Dianne a retired catholic nun with incurable brain cancer. Angelique our social media/model butterfly with a liver disease. Daniel and Lucas, two lovers whose lives have literally been turned upside down and whose relationship is turning the other way. And Tobias, a man I hated at first but damn he grew on me.
This book focuses on character development so if that’s not your jam just know that characters own the plot. This was also a slow start but once the introductions were completed the suspense started, which also brought on the tears.
This book truly covers death, ways to combat that feelings that go with it but never the prevention. Death is inevitable. If anything this book will make you think of death, disease and the human mind in ways you don’t want to but let’s face it you have to 🤣
This was gifted to me by PanMacmillian SA for an honest review.
What is death, and what does it mean to us? Well we get to explore this with Mustafa and the Mortician as they take us on a journey in their wellness centre. This book follows 5 individuals as they come to terms with the trajectory of their lives.
Dianne a retired catholic nun with incurable brain cancer. Angelique our social media/model butterfly with a liver disease. Daniel and Lucas, two lovers whose lives have literally been turned upside down and whose relationship is turning the other way. And Tobias, a man I hated at first but damn he grew on me.
This book focuses on character development so if that’s not your jam just know that characters own the plot. This was also a slow start but once the introductions were completed the suspense started, which also brought on the tears.
This book truly covers death, ways to combat that feelings that go with it but never the prevention. Death is inevitable. If anything this book will make you think of death, disease and the human mind in ways you don’t want to but let’s face it you have to 🤣
September 8, 2024
As someone is intrigued by death, particularly because of the limits of what we know about it, I was excited to read a book such as this since it explores how people negotiate death in the face of chronic illnesses.
I loved the concept as well and how the author executed it. By writing from the POV of each character, we are drawn into their inner worlds which allows us a deeper understanding of their nature and struggles. Nature, as written by the author, feels like a character in the story, a true living organism and not some background existence. For a moment, I was wondering if Thompson was a biologist or something because the descriptions were so detailed, and being someone from a non-science background, it was heavy (in a good way) but also interesting to see it merge in literature.
I think this book should have more readership and would make a great series (or at least a limited series). Would love to see many different people from different walks of life come to the institute and see how they negotiate death. I excited for what Thompson does next.
I loved the concept as well and how the author executed it. By writing from the POV of each character, we are drawn into their inner worlds which allows us a deeper understanding of their nature and struggles. Nature, as written by the author, feels like a character in the story, a true living organism and not some background existence. For a moment, I was wondering if Thompson was a biologist or something because the descriptions were so detailed, and being someone from a non-science background, it was heavy (in a good way) but also interesting to see it merge in literature.
I think this book should have more readership and would make a great series (or at least a limited series). Would love to see many different people from different walks of life come to the institute and see how they negotiate death. I excited for what Thompson does next.
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