Death : an oral history / Casey Jarman ; with illustrations by Brooke Weeber.

Introduction: by the author -- Jana DeCristofaro: grief services coordinator -- Katrina Spade: founder of the Urban Death Project -- Gabriel DePiero: twin brother -- Loren Rhoads: former editor, Morbid Curiosity -- David Bazan: songwriter -- Wende Jarman: barber, author's mother -- Anna Urquhart: social worker, author's friend -- Katherine MacLean: psychedelic scientist -- Holly Pruett: life-cycle celebrant -- John Lay: raconteur, author's uncle -- Josh Slocum: comsumer rights advocate -- Kim Stacey: freelance writer -- Simon Critchley: philosopher -- Andre Coberly: hospice volunteer -- Teressa Raiford: community organizer -- Art Spiegelman: cartoonist -- Zach Wilson: video game designer -- Frank Thompson: former death row warden -- Acknowledgments.

In this illuminating collection of oral-history style interviews, Casey Jarman talks to a funeral industry watchdog about the (often shady) history of the death trade; he hears how songwriter David Bazan lost his faith while trying to hold on to his family; he learns about cartoonist Art Spiegelman using his college LSD trips to explain death to his children; and he gets to know his own grandparents, posthumously.