Preview
  • Confessions of a Funeral Director

  • How the Business of Death Saved My Life
  • By: Caleb Wilde
  • Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
  • Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (270 ratings)

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Confessions of a Funeral Director

By: Caleb Wilde
Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
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Publisher's summary

A sixth-generation funeral director and writer of the popular "must read" (Time magazine) blog Confessions of a Funeral Director reflects on mortality and the powerful lessons death holds for every one of us in this compassionate and thoughtful spiritual memoir that combines the humor and insight of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes with the poignancy and brevity of When Breath Becomes Air.

Death. It happens to everyone, yet most of us don't want to talk about this final chapter of existence. Sixth-generation funeral director Caleb Wilde intimately understands this reticence and fear. The son of an undertaker, he hesitated to embrace the legacy of running his family's business. Yet he discovered that caring for the deceased and their loved ones profoundly changed his faith and his perspective on death - and life itself. "Yes, death can be bad. Yes, death can be negative," he acknowledges, "but it can also be beautiful. And that alternate narrative needs to be discussed".

In Confessions of a Funeral Director, he talks about his experiences and pushes back against the death-negative ethos of our culture, opening a thoughtful, poignant conversation to help us see the end of life in a positive and liberating way. In the wry, compassionate, and honest voice that has charmed his growing legions of blog readers, Wilde offers an intimate look inside his business, offering information on unspoken practices around death such as the embalming process, beautiful and memorable stories about families in the wake of death, and, most importantly, a fresh and wise perspective on how embracing death can allow us to embrace life.

Confessions of a Funeral Director is the story of one man learning how death illuminates and deepens the meaning of existence - insights that can help us all pursue and cherish full, rich lives.

©2017 Caleb Wilde (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers
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What listeners say about Confessions of a Funeral Director

Average customer ratings
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Amazing!

What an amazing story! It touched my life and made me better at funeral service.

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Intelligent journey from a death negative mindset to a death positive mindset. WOW.

The narrator is excellent. The author shares his journey by weaving in stories from when he was young, when he was in seminary, and when he became a funeral director. He shows in an empathetic manner how beneficial it is to move to a death positive mindset as opposed to staying in society’s overall death negative mindset. The story is heartwarming and compassionate.

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Death Positive vs. Death negative, true life.

loved it and live it on a day to day basis. This too is my life and a beautiful look into the struggles, triumphs, and enlightening effect death can have on ones mind and body.

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Excellent Gentle Handling of A Difficult, Avoided Reality

This is an amazing rumination of the beauty found in death.

Humanism, spirituality and the hope of an afterlife questioned and reconciled to astonishment of the beautiful macabre.

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Absolutely wonderful

Down to earth and from personal experience, Caleb shares what he has gone through, which in turn helps future Funeral Directors get a glimpse of some of exactly what Death Care entails. Very good book.

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Such an inspiring book

I absolutely LOVED this book. It was moving, full of emotion and inspiring for all those in this career or headed down that path. Highly recommend to anyone!

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Future Funeral Director

Parts of it it sounded redundant. Otherwise informative. The author helped me to understand some of my own feelings about death.

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thought provoking

this book is short and sweet, please don't be fooled by this. The author takes you into story after story that Will make you challenge your thoughts on life, death and religion. I laughed , cried and even prayed differently after listening to this book. I think you will enjoy and appreciate this book on so many levels.

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brilliant!

I am a hospice social worker and found this book so inspiring. Thank you Mr. Wilde for this beautiful memoir!

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Excellent book!!!!!!

It's a little sad but at the same time realistic, I think the intentions are to learn how to not to be so afraid of dead, it helps to see this event as a natural step in life.

LOVED IT!!!! Hope the author comes up with part 2 :)

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