In medieval Sweden, a knight returns from war only to find a ravaged homeland. He meets up with a group of travelling players and eventually confronts the embodiment of death with whom he engages in a game of chess for his life. The knight and Death play as the cultural turmoil envelopes the people around them as they try, in different ways, to deal with the upheaval the plague has caused.

"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."--Back cover.

"Aware their grandmother is gravely ill, four siblings make a pact to keep death from taking her away. But Death does arrive all the same, as it must. He comes gently, naturally. And he comes with enough time to share a story with the children that helps them to realize the value of loss to life and the importance of being able to say goodbye."--from amazon.com

Big Cat Pepper has always been part of the family, but after he grows very old and dies, the boy who loves him comes to understand his mother's reassurance that "his spirit is forever and can fly, fly, fly."

Because Old Pig knows that her time to die is near, she puts her affairs in order and takes a slow walk with Granddaughter to savor the beauty for one last time.

Living in an alternate world where everyone knows the day they will die, Denton Little survives his death date and finds himself separated from his family and chased by a ruthless Death Investigation Agency.

A straightforward, wise, and humorous narrative field guide for both the dying and those who love them by an author who brings a unique set of qualifications to this delicate subjectshe's a Pushcart Prize-winning writer, a palliative care nurse with more than ten years of experience, and a lifelong Buddhist. If you don't plan, you're only limiting your options. We do not know when we will die. We may see it coming from far away, or all at once....

Leopold Bloom King, the narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a well-known Joyce scholar. After Leo's older brother commits suicide at the age of thirteen, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death. Eventually Leo becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes friends Sheba and Trevor Poe,...

"Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool's errand-to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Monastery Beach. He knows it's a long shot, but Jay feels it's the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad's death by suicide the previous year. The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made infinitely worse by the arrival of...