Near the Exit: Travels with the Not-So-Grim Reaper

After her brother died unexpectedly and her mother moved into a dementia-care facility, spiritual travel writer and Episcopal deacon Lori Erickson felt called to a new quest: to face death head on, with the eye of a tourist and the heart of a pastor. Blending memoir, spirituality, and travel, Near the Exit examines how cultures confront and have confronted death, from Egypt�s Valley of the Kings and Mayan temples, to a Colorado cremation pyre and Day of the Dead celebrations, to Maori settlements and tourist-destination graveyards. Erickson reflects on mortality�the ways we avoid it, the ways we cope with it, and the ways life is made more precious by accepting it�in places as far away as New Zealand and as close as the nursing home up the street. Throughout her personal journey and her travels, Erickson �helps us to see that one of the most life-affirming things we can do is to invite death along for the ride.