Alice Bodnár
Der ewige Kollege
Reportagen aus der Nähe des Todes
1. Edition 2009
203 pages
ISBN 978-3-525-40421-8
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
plus S&H
Book
Have recent years revealed any changes in the way we approach death? This book seeks the answer to that question by collecting the impressions and experiences of persons who professionally have to deal often with death. The focus lies on the subjective perception of the various partners and how they cope with the challenge of dealing daily with the transient nature of life. The book also documents in photographs this daily struggle, which affects everyone and yet is still a taboo. The dialogs reproduced serve to demystify death and portray death as a natural part of human life. For example, a police detective describes his more than 50-hour interrogation of a person suspected of cannibalism; a woman who works in a children hospice relates why her work with terminally sick children is still a source of pleasure for her and whether the children have a sense of their impending death; a doctor explains why it can be the right thing not to fully inform a cancer patient of his/her state; the head of a nursing home explains his position on the subject of assisted suicide; an undertaker describes the techniques used in preparing the dead for burial and how some things still get to him even after 20 years of experience.