Smoke Gets in your Eyes cover art

Smoke Gets in your Eyes

And Other Lessons from the Crematorium

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Smoke Gets in your Eyes

By: Caitlin Doughty
Narrated by: Caitlin Doughty
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About this listen

From her first day at Westwind Cremation & Burial, 23-year-old Caitlin Doughty threw herself into her curious new profession. Coming face-to-face with the very thing we go to great lengths to avoid thinking about, she started to wonder about the lives of those she cremated and the mourning families they left behind, and found herself confounded by people's erratic reactions to death.

Exploring our death rituals - and those of other cultures - she pleads the case for healthier attitudes around death and dying. Full of bizarre encounters, gallows humour and vivid characters (both living and very dead), this illuminating account makes this otherwise terrifying subject inviting and fascinating.

©2016 Caitlin Doughty (P)2016 Audible, Ltd Customs & Traditions Death & Dying Social Sciences Sociology Tradition Thought-Provoking

Critic Reviews

"Unforgettable...a hilarious, poignant and impassioned plea to revolutionise our attitudes to death."(Gavin Francis, Guardian)
"A zingy, fresh and possibly even important book about death...This book might change your life." ( Evening Standard)
"Upbeat, brave and brilliantly, morbidly curious...Important and timely." ( Sunday Times)
All stars
Most relevant
Caitlyn makes listening to topics in the death industry so very easy. Always entertaining with a nice amount of humour, she is my new addiction!

Great story to listen to

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Really enjoyable and insightful journey into a taboo world. There were some moments where I thought “I’m not sure if I want to hear this”, but the material is presented in such an interesting and thought-provoking manner, I just couldn’t help myself.

Enjoyable, thought provoking, insightful

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I've been following ask a mortician for some time now but I recently purchased the physical copy of Smoke gets in your eyes however ironically enough I've got a problems and so I decided to purchase it on audible because I find it easier sometimes to listen not only does Caitlin have a great ASMR voice and she's extremely charismatic when she speaks the bet book was funny anecdotal peaceful nerve wracking exciting and dead this lady has greatly healed me from many years of a terrifyingly crippling fear of death I have never felt so more at peace with death since Caitlin and this book is fantastic it's so informative about your rights about the realism of the world and how we perceive death and dying and the funeral industry a lot of the funeral industry really does rip our loved ones these dead bodies away from us almost like that of somebody ripping a baby out of your arms then everything is just so secretive I think the order of the good death is a beautiful and wonderful new design to help us as people as beings of this planet as animals just as equally as every other animal to learn to accept our mortality and to embrace it everybody has their own spiritual belief but everybody's going to die and that's absolutely correct and you can't control it and just having her own theory like she's had her own near-death experience and she was ready to go and this lady is extremely empowering I think she is a fantastic role model for young girls and young women and even older women and I actually wholeheartedly agree on the topic that she speaks of with prolonging death as well there's a lot of things that she touches on that really does in a way because we're so disconnected we know subconsciously in the back of our minds we do suppress it we know that she's right and a lot of these people in this death industry know that she's right but the fair fear of something or pushing it away only increases fear of the thing itself and what Caitlin's doing is she's bringing it back to the Frontline she's literally pushing up daisies if you know what I mean hahaha this is one of the best books I've read in the last decade thank you Caitlin all my love one of your humble video patrons.

thank you for everything you've done for my death

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I loved the hell out of this book, no pun intended.

Written with dark honesty and a touch of humour, Caitlin writes about her life, twisted along with the corpses whose lives that have ended. I learnt so much about the death industry, and how death is observed in many cultures around the globe.

Five stars all around!

A beautiful book worthy of a close listen

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There were definitely confronting times but it was also a lovely coming of age story

Caitlin became my most interesting friend

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In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.