From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World to Find the Good Death

Caitlin Doughty

In this extremely original and eye-opening book, ‘From Here to Eternity: Travelling the World to Find the Good Death’, American Caitlin Doughty goes in search of societies around the world that embrace death and integrate it more naturally into their lives than Western cultures tend to do. With humour, genuine respect and awe, Caitlin takes us on a fascinating and enlightening journey that encourages us to rethink our relationship with death and with dead bodies.

Caitlin notes how cultural and societal changes have led the places she visits to adapt and chang over time, whilst still retaining their beliefs in the importance of maintaining a close, regular relationship with ancestors. From the high-tech digital columbariums of Japan, to the loving care with which Indonesian families interact with, and tend to, the preserved bodies of their loved ones during the ma’nene’, it is a thought provoking tour which encourages us to think more deeply about the accepted practices and rituals of the west.

What Whiteballoon Thinks

Having just read Caitlin’s earlier book ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’ (highly recommended for anyone with and interest in cremation) I knew that this would be another unflinching, informative and thoughtful delve into the subject matter. Caitlin’s use of humour to temper and lighten what could be a very difficult or, to Western sensibilities, disturbing subject matter, works perfectly.

It’s lovely to see how, as she travels the world in search of knowledge and understanding, Caitlin reconsiders her wishes for her own deathcare. Her insights come from a deep knowledge and understanding of deathcare in the USA. Caitlin has long felt that the streamlining and commercialisation of this sector has led to a form of denial and disconnection that she believes is detrimental to both acceptance of death and dying, and grieving.

For many this may be a difficult or uncomfortable read, but I feel that at a time when the funeral sector is in flux, it is both fascinating and important to understand that we have the right and the ability to shape how we look after and remember our dead.

About the Author

Born and raised in Hawaii, Caitlin Doughty is a mortician, writer, educational documentary maker, and advocate for funeral industry reform. She is the founder of the non-profit death acceptance collective The Order of the Good Death and co-founder of Death Salon. Bestselling author Caitlin’s web series ‘Ask a Mortician’ have been viewed more than 250 million times. She is currently lived in Los Angeles where she owns an alternative funeral home, Undertaking LA.