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A True Story About Life
Simon and Schuster
January 2014
On Sale: January 14, 2014
288 pages ISBN: 1451642857 EAN: 9781451642858 Kindle: B00BSAZ4N4 Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
Why does a college course on death have a three-year
waiting list? When nurse Norma Bowe decided to
teach a course on death at a college in New Jersey, she
never expected it to be popular. But year after year
students crowd into her classroom, and the reason is clear:
Norma’s “death class” is really about how to make the most
of what poet Mary Oliver famously called our “one wild and
precious life.” Under the guise of discussions about
last wills and last breaths and visits to cemeteries and
crematoriums, Norma teaches her students to find grace in
one another. By following her over four years, award-winning
journalist Erika Hayasaki shows how Norma steers four
extraordinary students from their tormented families and
neighborhoods toward happiness: she rescues one young woman
from her suicidal mother, helps a young man manage his
schizophrenic brother, and inspires another to leave his
gang life behind. Through this unorthodox class on death,
Norma helps kids who are barely hanging on to understand not
only the value of their own lives, but also the secret of
fulfillment: to throw yourself into helping others.
Hayasaki’s expert reporting and literary prose bring Norma’s
wisdom out of the classroom, transforming it into an
inspiring lesson for all. In the end, Norma’s very own
life—and how she lives it—is the lecture that sticks.
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