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All the Living and the Dead
- A Personal Investigation into the Death Trade
- Narrated by: Hayley Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
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All the Living and the Dead
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Summary
Bloomsbury presents All the Living and the Dead by Hayley Campbell, read by Hayley Campbell.
We are surrounded by death. It is in our news, our nursery rhymes, our true-crime podcasts. Yet from a young age, we are told that death is something to be feared. How are we supposed to know what we’re so afraid of, when we are never given the chance to look?
Fuelled by a childhood fascination with death, journalist Hayley Campbell searches for answers in the people who make a living by working with the dead. Along the way, she encounters mass fatality investigators, embalmers and a former executioner who is responsible for ending 62 lives. She meets gravediggers who have already dug their own graves, visits a cryonics facility in Michigan, goes for late-night Chinese with a detective and questions a man whose job it is to make crime scenes disappear.
Through Campbell’s incisive and candid interviews with these people who see death every day, she asks: why would someone choose this kind of life? Does it change you as a person? And are we missing something vital by letting death remain hidden?
A dazzling work of cultural criticism, All the Living and the Dead weaves together reportage with memoir, history and philosophy to offer listeners a fascinating look into the psychology of Western death.
Critic reviews
"Hayley Campbell is working out a philosophy of death by getting close to it; holding it; asking interesting questions of people who spend their lives dealing with it. This is an essential, compassionate, honest examination of how we deal with death, and how it changes the living." (Audrey Niffenegger)
"Campbell is a gorgeous writer, capturing the exquisite pathos and gallows humour found in folks who spend their lives working with the dead." (Caitlin Doughty, New York Times best-selling author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes)
"A gentle book and, like death itself, sometimes an unexpectedly kind one." (Neil Gaiman)
What listeners say about All the Living and the Dead
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Amazon Customer
- 19-02-23
Brilliant, I I couldn’t put it down.
Open, honest, informative and insightful. We desperately need more people to think about death in this way and remove the stigma and inaccuracies surrounding the death industry.
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- RhodetteBach
- 07-04-22
fascinating & thought provoking!
absolutely fascinating & thought provoking! this is a book I will listen to countless times, & learn/feel something new each time. wonderful!
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Otis
- 13-07-22
Absolutely captivating from start to end
I had come across this book after hearing the author speaking on a podcast, where I was drawn in by hearing about the most hidden part of all of our lives... death.
This book is so beautifully and thoughtfully written, managing to be amusing without being irreverent, whilst other parts had me crying out loud with my headphones on at the absolute tragedy of life and death.
Hayley Campbell's narration is everything I want out of a narrator - possibly because she experienced all of what she was saying first-hand and spoke with authenticity and compassion. I'll be recommending this book to many other friends. We clearly all need to talk about death more.
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- Lee
- 06-07-22
An interesting look at death
Loved this. The author wants to look at death from all angles ie undertaker, clean up crew etc It’s an eye opening book which certainly opened my eyes to the ‘death industry’ stuff I’d never even thought about. We also get some history and back stories regarding some of the characters involved. Well written and well read.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Kindle Customer
- 08-01-23
Definitely worth a listen
Enjoyed this book tremendously. So many topics covered so well. Demystifying death - so important to us all.
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- P. Stephenson
- 23-05-22
Unique and Universal
I loved it. Warts and all. Thank you for telling this important story and giving voice to those who work with the dead and their living.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 09-02-23
Beautifully and intelligently written and performed
Calling this work ‘unflinching’ would be both cliched and a disservice. Hayley understands the flinch, she tells openly and honestly about the moments that do and don’t cause those flinches in herself and others. When those flinches have crept into her subconscious and bedded into psyche, the effects those moments have had on her and those who provided interviews for her. On the other hand call it ‘honesty’ isn’t enough to explain it either. Hayley is completely honest, but what sets her apart is her insistence on not only telling the truth that is ‘necessary’ but the truth that may also seem excessive or uncomfortable. She doesn’t just tell truths, she actively doesn’t conceal the harder truths to hear. I found this book considered yet moving, unbiased but highly emotive and I felt it. Hayley asks for her readers to consider what their own limits may be - I can’t say I know how to answer that yet but, what I can say is that with the help of honest and unjudgemental information like that provided by Hayley through her incredible research and the open conversation’s she was able to generate with her interviewees, I have a better idea that I did.
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- S. Wraith
- 14-04-22
An amazing insight into the world in the space between life and the death trade.
Engaging, clever, witty, insightful, a dive into the world in between worlds, a captivating and often touching look at the hidden world of those working in that space between your life ending and you being laid to rest.
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2 people found this helpful
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- "the_gentleman_of_the_bush"
- 06-06-22
Superb. Enlightening. Soul food.
Brilliant piece of journalism, don't be put off by the subject matter (I was at first), this is well worth your time. It has helped me to reframe the concept in my own mind and I feel more prepared somehow. Excellently narrated too.
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1 person found this helpful
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- M. Pears
- 10-02-23
I didn’t want this book to end!
This book is brilliantly written and absolutely fascinating. I kept watching the countdown clock willing it not to end as there was one fascinating story after another. Some parts are incredibly sad but mostly the stories are comforting and even amusing. I do hope the author writes a follow up. Best book I’ve read in a while.
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