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Dear Life

A Doctor's Story of Love and Loss - Shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award

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Dear Life

By: Rachel Clarke
Narrated by: Rachel Clarke
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About this listen

 'A magnificent, tender book' Independent

'Her words are brimful of love, grace and kindness' Guardian

'She writes with a tender, lyrical beauty' Sunday Times

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Your Life in My Hands comes this vibrant, tender and deeply personal memoir that finds light and love in the darkest of places.

As a specialist in palliative medicine, Dr Rachel Clarke chooses to inhabit a place many people would find too tragic to contemplate. Every day she tries to bring care and comfort to those reaching the end of their lives and to help make dying more bearable.

Rachel's training was put to the test in 2017 when her beloved GP father was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She learned that nothing - even the best palliative care - can sugar-coat the pain of losing someone you love.
And yet, she argues, in a hospice there is more of what matters in life - more love, more strength, more kindness, more joy, more tenderness, more grace, more compassion - than you could ever imagine. For if there is a difference between people who know they are dying and the rest of us, it is simply this: that the terminally ill know their time is running out, while we live as though we have all the time in the world.

Dear Life is a book about the vital importance of human connection, by the doctor we would all want by our sides at a time of crisis. It is a love letter - to a father, to a profession, to life itself.©2020 Rachel Clarke Death & Dying Grief & Loss Medical Personal Development Professionals & Academics Relationships Sociology Women Heartfelt Inspiring Medicine Thought-Provoking

Critic reviews

This is a wonderful book. Rachel takes the worst life can throw at us and shows us the beauty in it
What a remarkable book this is; tender, funny, brave, heartfelt, radiant with love and life. It sings with joy and kindness
A truly wonderful book. Read it
A truly beautiful book about death and life and the price of love. Told by a doctor, with compassion and wisdom. I cried, but they were warm, comforting tears. It made me think about stuff I fear in a new and better way
Moving, thought-provoking and so very important. I'm immeasurably grateful to have read it, and it will stay with me. In death, we learn about life
A touching and profound meditation on what it means to be human . . . it is a remarkable book
Dear Life names the tension between love and risk that gives life its sweetness. It takes readers to the edge of life in supportive, wise company
Heart-wrenchingly tender
She writes with a tender, lyrical beauty
Her words are brimful of love, grace and kindness
A magnificent, tender book
Moving . . . an honest account from the front line of death
An enthralling and deeply affecting book . . . It is [the] blend of the personal and professional that makes Dear Life so special
Honest, clear-sighted and immensely wise, Clarke's book is laced with loss, yet raises a jubilant toast to life
A heartbreaking, exhilarating read
Arguably the most remarkable book of the year
An NHS doctor interweaves heartwarming stories of palliative care for patients in a hospice with memories of her beloved GP father
Rachel Clarke weaves together an account of her training as a doctor who came to specialise in palliative care, the stories of her patients, and her father's death in Dear Life. I read it while coming to terms with the death of a family friend, and found it full of honesty and tender wisdom about life and the process of dying. It managed the brilliant and paradoxical feat of helping you love life a little more and fear death a little less (Matt Haig)
This astonishing book by Dr Clarke will make you re-evaluate your own life and priorities. This is a deeply moving read
Compassionate, heartfelt and deeply life-affirming
All stars
Most relevant
Strange that it is so unusual to hear somebody speak at such length about something which will happen to everybody. For that reason alone, I found this to be an important book. Excellent writing. There are some beautifully lyrical sentences in this book -- so much so that I sometimes wished I was reading it rather than listening, so that I could underline certain passages which really struck me. The narrator has a sometimes strangely clipped way of speaking, but overall she handled the gravitas of the subject well.

Deeply personal insight into the end of life

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A superlative account of palliative care from a professional, patient, medical, personal and familial perspective. Impeccably written, impeccably narrated and uplifting on many levels. As one who’s currently receiving first-class palliative care for my cancer, I would heartily recommended this book to all.

A superlative account of palliative care

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My partner has advanced cancer. This book provides support, insights, information and understanding about what my partner and I are likely to face. It was emotional, poignant and essential reading. An incredible book.

An incredible book.

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So many important life lessons included in this book. Like many people I imagine the thought of dying is a pretty scary thought. I understand now the importance of planning ahead.

Wonderfully moving

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I took interest in this publication as a palliative care professional. Having engaged well with a similar work from a different author I was excited to engage witch a fresh point of view.
The content of this book is essential for any professional involved in the palliative care sector, perhaps more so for healthcare professionals who are not palliative care focused.
There is poetry in the prose and the author should be proud of this creation.
The only note I could give is that the subject matter lacks peaks and dips, the heaviness of the subject matter is a constant flow that makes the work a bit heavy to listen to without breaks. The more serious the topic, the more necessary the occasional comic relief in both substance and delivery.

On balance, this is a fantastic achievement and a vital piece of insightful work. I highly recommend it.

Insightful but heavy

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