The Truth About Death cover art

The Truth About Death

Preview

Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Truth About Death

By: Robert Hellenga
Narrated by: Johnny Heller
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $22.99

Buy Now for $22.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using voucher balance (if applicable) then card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions Of Use and Privacy Notice and authorise Audible to charge your designated credit card or another available credit card on file.
Cancel

About this listen

The Truth About Death, the title novella of this virtuosic collection, is a masterpiece of sardonic humor that confronts Death head-on and emerges bloody but unbowed. Simon, an undertaker, embalms his own father and faces his own death. Louisa, Simon's mother, makes peace with her husband over his dead body in a cooler in the basement of the funeral home.

Simon contemplates the mystery of death over a plate of spaghetti cacio e pepe in Rome with an Italian undertaker. The dog, Maya - who works as a greeter at the funeral home, where she comforts those who are grieving hardest--eventually makes the truth about death known to Elizabeth, Simon's wife.

New Yorker cartoons keep the family laughing during the most difficult months. Elizabeth decides to show her own cartoons to the New Yorker cartoon editor, Bob Mankoff, at his office in New York.

The serious issues cleverly addressed in The Truth About Death are touched with warmth, humour and deep feeling in the eight other stories, not by invoking comforting fairy tales but by accepting the fact that death and grief are part of the natural order of things.

As Maya explains to Elizabeth, 'It's just the way things are'.

©2016 Robert Hellengra (P)2016 Audible, Ltd
Fiction Short Stories Marriage New York Witty Comedy Italy

What listeners say about The Truth About Death

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

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.