title: The End: The Human Experience of Death
author: Bianca Nogrady
description: <div>"...brave, clear-eyed work." &#8212;<I>Publishers Weekly </I></div><br /><br /><div>"Nogrady's book offers a comprehensive reflection on everything we know&#8212;and what we can only guess&#8212;about the end."&#160;&#8212;<I>Scientific American</I></div>
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  ![](../Images/image00222.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Dedication
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _For Kristine Finkelman Stout,_
  
  
  _a beloved friend who kept me from dying,_
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _and for my beautiful mother, Enriqueta,_
  
  
  _who helped me to recover and stand whole again._
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Epigraph
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  >
  
  
  
  
  
  What could be worse than living without honor? That is the cruelest death, it
  is the worst death.
  
  
  Joan Ramin I Ramis, _Lucrétia o Roma Libre_ , 1796
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Prologue
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “You’ll have to leave, of course,” said Marcelina. “It would be impossible to
  keep this all from the girl.”
  
  
  Eduardo’s face darkened with impatience, though she couldn’t have seen it as
  they lay in her bed together. The heat of their intercourse had barely become
  an exhausted ache in his loins before she’d rolled away from him to wrap
  herself within the soft linens, now rich