An inspiring book on an always-difficult subject. Though for American readers the care facilities and specific treatments provided in the U.K. may differ, the personal stories will have universal resonance.

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It’s not a gloomy book. I shed a few tears — usually over the love shown between the dying and their relatives — but it’s not gut-wrenching and Mannix weaves the light and dark strands of her experience with finesse.

There is something illuminating and beautiful in the way Mannix writes about death not as an inconvenient or dreaded party pooper, but as the intended and inevitable final event of our lives. “There are only two days with fewer than 24 hours in each lifetime, sitting like bookends astride our lives: one is celebrated every year yet it is the other that makes us see living as precious.”

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The stories read like fiction, from a writer well attuned to her craft. The dialogue sings. It captures the rhythms, tone and voice of her characters. Mannix has a writer’s (and doctor’s) eye for detail… It is incredibly moving, of course. You are likely to spend much of the book in tears. But what it isn’t is miserable. There’s plenty of humour.

There aren’t all that many books that change the way you see the world. This book really might. It will make you want to do a better job of loving and living. It will make you want to be kinder. And it will make you want to cherish every precious moment of your precious life.

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Kathryn Mannix has shared in the end of many people’s lives. She understands death, because she stands in waiting for so many people, guiding them through their final hours or days.

With the End in Mind is a beautifully told collection of stories …(that) gave me an overwhelming sense that everything turns out okay, even if it doesn’t.

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