"Haunted by an unmet promise, the Swart family loses touch after the death of their matriarch. Adrift, the lives of the three siblings move separately through the uncharted waters of South Africa; Anton, the golden boy who bitterly resents his life's unfulfilled promises; Astrid, whose beauty is her power; and the youngest, Amor, whose life is shaped by a nebulous feeling of guilt. Reunited by four funerals over three decades, the dwindling family...

On the day of their dear friend's funeral, three lifelong buddies steal the ashes and go on an adventure to see their favorite soccer team play in their final game with the deceased's widow in hot pursuit.

"Louisiana, 2042. Spurred by the effects of climate change, states have closed graveyards and banned burials, making cremation mandatory and the ashes of loved ones state-owned unless otherwise claimed. In the small town of St. Genevieve, Alma lives alone and struggles to grieve in the wake of her young mother Naomi's death, during which Alma failed to honor Naomi's final wishes. Now, Alma decides to fight to reclaim Naomi's ashes, a journey of unburial...

In the wake of her father's sudden passing, a successful actor (Itami's wife and frequent collaborator, Nobuko Miyamoto) and her lascivious husband leave Tokyo and return to her family home to oversee a traditional funeral. Over three days of mourning that bring illicit escapades in the woods, a surprisingly materialistic priest, and cinema2s most epic sandwich handoff, the tensions between public propriety and private hypocrisy are laid bare. Deftly...

When they find a dead bird, a group of children buries it in the woods, sings a song to it, and puts flowers on the grave.

"A little girl grieves the loss of her mother, but she can't grieve alone. When her friends and family arrive at her house to sit shiva, laden with cakes and stories, she refuses to come downstairs. But the laughter and memories gradually bring her into the fold, where she is comforted by her community. By the end of the book, she feels stronger and more nourished, and she understands the beautiful tradition. Then, when sees her father sitting alone,...

When tragedy strikes, Tess drops out of school and moves in with her funeral director dad, forcing her to examine life, death, and the boy she thought she knew and loved in a brand new light--

"A young man journeys into Sri Lanka's formerly war-torn north, and into a country's soul, in this searing novel of love and the legacy of war from the award-winning author of The Story of a Brief Marriage. "The closest we seem to get to the present are those brief moments we stop to consider the spaces our bodies are occupying, the warmth of the sheets in which we wake, the scratched surface of the window on a train taking us somewhere else..." A...

"One summer's day we started a business called Funerals Ltd, to help all the poor dead animals in the world. Esther did the digging, I wrote the poems, and Esther's little brother, Puttie, cried."--Page [4] of cover.

Soon after his mother's death, Matt takes a job at a funeral home in his tough Brooklyn neighborhood and, while attending and assisting with funerals, begins to accept her death and his responsibilities as a man.