The INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED PSYCHIATRIST and author Irvin D. Yalom dedicated his career to counseling and psychotherapy for people suffering from anxiety and grief. However, he had never found himself in the position of counseling himself until the day his wife, Marilyn Yalom, a distinguished author of cultural history books focused mainly on women's issues, was diagnosed with cancer.

In the book Being Mortal, Marilyn and Irvin Yalom share with readers how they had to confront an unprecedented and painful struggle: Marilyn dying a dignified death, Irvin continuing to live without her. In the successive accounts from each of them of the last months of their shared life and then the first months that Irvin was left alone, they provide us with a rare insight into the management of death and the loss of a loved one.

The Yaloms were very fortunate in many areas – they had a loving family, a beautiful home, a wide circle of friends, enthusiastic readers worldwide, and a long and very satisfying marriage – yet they were faced with death, as we all are. With the honesty and wisdom of people who have deeply reflected and know how to love, they explore here universal issues of closeness, love, and mourning.

Written with the knowledge and experience of two fulfilled lives, Being Mortal offers profound understanding and comfort to all those struggling to fight against despair in the face of death, in order to live a meaningful life.

Marilyn and Irvin write with such clarity that I feel as though I lived through that time with them… I was deeply moved by the humility with which Irvin acknowledges that we are always unprepared for the fateful encounter with death or for the loss of our soulmate, no matter how closely we may follow similar stories as therapists. The book is enlightening and vividly written, a very beautiful, thorough observation of the comfort that the thought of having lived our lives well can bring, and a beacon of hope for all of us who will one day grieve.

And of course, it is an essay on how we mortals can learn to live knowing this truth about ourselves. – KATHRYN MANNIX

This beautifully written, moving, and also comforting testimony is a love story, the fairy tale of two people who lived incredibly fulfilled lives, almost as if they are one person… It will inspire you and likely motivate you to view your life in a different light. – ABRAHAM VERGHESE

For more than half a century, distinguished psychiatrist Irvin D. Yalom has captivated the world with his stories about the human soul, stories filled with wisdom, introspection, and humor. Now, with striking honesty and courage, he shares with us the most difficult experience of his life: the loss of his wife and lifelong partner since their teenage years. Companions until the end, companions even in the writing of this book, they reveal to us an indelible image of mourning – the terror, the pain, the denial, and the reluctant acceptance.

Yet they leave us with much more than just the penetrating narrative of a definitive loss – an unforgettable and painfully beautiful love story that endures. – LORI GOTTLIEB

BEFORE YOU READ

Being Mortal is much more than a book. It is an inexhaustible story of love. It is a text that transcends past and present. It is exquisite, heartfelt, and vulnerable – lacking the usual bombastic defenses of impressiveness – as it approaches the unbearable pain of separation and the irremediable void of loss.

It would benefit all of us to read this insightful and comprehensible book many times, both to face death as we approach the end of our life, and perhaps even more importantly, to confront our grief when a beloved person dies before us. – DR JOANNE CACCIATORE

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

IRVIN YALOM, professor emeritus of psychiatry at Stanford University, is the author of international bestsellers, including When Nietzsche Wept, The Gift of Therapy, Existential Psychotherapy, and Was That All? Then Once More!. Among Marilyn Yalom's books are classic works of cultural history such as The History of the Wife, The History of the Breast, The Birth of the Chess Queen, and How the French Invented Love, as well as her last book published posthumously, Innocent Witnesses: Childhood Memories of World War II.

Irvin and Marilyn Yalom were married for 65 years.