Now Departing: A Small-Town Mortician on Death, Life, and the Moments in Between
by: Victor M. Sweeney

Hardcover. NY, Gallery Books, 1st, 2025, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 267 pages. Now Departing explores the science, craft, and mindfulness behind Victor M. Sweeney's very peculiar skill set. Working in the funeral business since he was eighteen years old, Sweeney astutely shares the powerful and moving lessons of how we can exist and be remembered with intention and meaning. Each page is filled with reflective observations and true stories from the lives and deaths that Sweeney has come to know through his work in a small Minnesota town. With grace and understanding, he also explores the rituals around preparing and saying goodbye to those we mourn; the love and forgiveness that arises in the face of grief; the universal interplay of walking between the chasm of the mundanity of a required business practice that touches on humanity's deepest metaphysical realities; and ultimately, how loss gives us the opportunity to focus on and celebrate the elements we have gained. Clean copy.