--- product_id: 199754 title: "How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter, New Edition (National Book Award Winner)" price: "474 kr" currency: NOK in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.no/products/199754-how-we-die-reflections-on-lifes-final-chapter-new-edition store_origin: NO region: Norway --- # How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter, New Edition (National Book Award Winner) **Price:** 474 kr **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter, New Edition (National Book Award Winner) - **How much does it cost?** 474 kr with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.no](https://www.desertcart.no/products/199754-how-we-die-reflections-on-lifes-final-chapter-new-edition) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The definitive resource on perhaps the single most universal human concern: death. Even more relevant than when it was first published, this edition addresses contemporary issues in end-of-life care and includes an all-embracing and incisive afterword that examines the state of health care and our relationship with life as it approaches its terminus. How We Die also discusses how we can take control of our own final days and those of our loved ones. "Nuland's work acknowledges, with unmatched clarity, the harsh realities of how life departs… There is compassion, and often wisdom, in every page." — San Francisco Examiner Review: For everyone expecting another to be approaching death. - And for your own preparations, too. A classic work, lays out what we want to know but do not wish to look out. Respectful and almost reverent. The packaging was astonishingly good-- rather like desertcart's in the mid-1990s. Book was slipped into a crisp plastic sleeve; documents folded and wrapped around the lower edge; set into a cardboard 3/4 sleeve; snugged into a waterproof envelope with a hand-written thank you from the seller. Thank You. I live in a rural area with no postal delivery, and the postal workers tend to roll or fold books to fit them in the P.O. boxes. No chance of that here, and no bent/banged corners. Review: Very Good Book - "How We Die" comprises individual stories taken from a physician's close looks at and through the dying process. Especially enjoyable is that it described the illnesses and pathologies in layman but partly technical language. Much of the book's value was in the frank descriptions of the diseases. In an early chapter Dr. Nuland is still a third-year medical student taking a patient's history, when the patient suffers a severe cardiac event. The thriller begins -- Nuland steps through rapid-fire, inexperienced, yet probably good decisions, and immediately cuts through the breastbone. Holding the man's defibrillated heart in his hands, he tries to massage it back into sync. Nuland explains how a phone call from the patient's spoiled, college-age daughter had set off an effect on his constricted arteries, which, combined with his life-style choices (exercise, diet, substance-intake) genetics, and age, caused a breaking off of plaque, creating a blood clot (ischemia) and finally the heart's starvation of the blood's oxygen-carrying hemoglobin. Perhaps an unintended result was that I learned, in a socio-economic context, how 18th Century English society routinely allowed young, poor, meagerly-paid boys to be hired to climb inside of chimneys to clean them -- and about the horrific scrotum cancers and visceral diseases they contracted. The section on Alzheimer's Disease covers its physiological impact, level-by-level, and was an eye-opener for me. Nuland has been deeply touched by his experiences and conveys this well. This is an amazing look inside a physician's head, the sort of detached, frank, professionalism that lurks there, and the full panoply of empathy and human feeling. One chapter is on an AIDS patient's downward spiraling journey, mixed with a sort of chronology or history of HIV. This is a seven-page history of the discovery of AIDS, and related pharmacology and forensics. Reading San Francisco newspapers my whole life has kept me informed of this insidious disease's past so I would have actually appreciated an even more detailed accounting. Missing is a detailed accounting of the fascinating race in isolating the AIDS retrovirus between the CDC and Pasteur Institute in Paris. Along with his experiences, Nuland also expresses opinions and a philosophy revolving around his work, which also gives this book value. He presents both sides of the euthanasia issue, only going as far as to criticize a particularly questionable case. He talks about the value of the family doctor, death with dignity, death by "old age" (though a doctor never can write this on the death certificate, says Nuland), suicide, and euthanasia. It is on death itself where Nuland may be his most eloquent. This book is excellent as a gift to someone who's lost a loved one to the ravages of long-enduring, punishing, terminal diseases. Someone gave me a copy of this book after I'd lost my close grandfather to a debilitating suite of diseases. It was very soothing to read Nuland's book after his death. I plan to buy several more copies. Had this book been longer and more detailed I would have given it 4-1/2 or 5 stars, instead of 4. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #40,527 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #59 in Death #85 in Anatomy (Books) #164 in Grief & Bereavement | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,611 Reviews | ## Images ![How We Die: Reflections on Life's Final Chapter, New Edition (National Book Award Winner) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71zUwiUBF5L.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Media Language, Media Format** options. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ For everyone expecting another to be approaching death. *by C***U on August 25, 2026* And for your own preparations, too. A classic work, lays out what we want to know but do not wish to look out. Respectful and almost reverent. The packaging was astonishingly good-- rather like Amazon's in the mid-1990s. Book was slipped into a crisp plastic sleeve; documents folded and wrapped around the lower edge; set into a cardboard 3/4 sleeve; snugged into a waterproof envelope with a hand-written thank you from the seller. Thank You. I live in a rural area with no postal delivery, and the postal workers tend to roll or fold books to fit them in the P.O. boxes. No chance of that here, and no bent/banged corners. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Good Book *by L***D on August 31, 2011* "How We Die" comprises individual stories taken from a physician's close looks at and through the dying process. Especially enjoyable is that it described the illnesses and pathologies in layman but partly technical language. Much of the book's value was in the frank descriptions of the diseases. In an early chapter Dr. Nuland is still a third-year medical student taking a patient's history, when the patient suffers a severe cardiac event. The thriller begins -- Nuland steps through rapid-fire, inexperienced, yet probably good decisions, and immediately cuts through the breastbone. Holding the man's defibrillated heart in his hands, he tries to massage it back into sync. Nuland explains how a phone call from the patient's spoiled, college-age daughter had set off an effect on his constricted arteries, which, combined with his life-style choices (exercise, diet, substance-intake) genetics, and age, caused a breaking off of plaque, creating a blood clot (ischemia) and finally the heart's starvation of the blood's oxygen-carrying hemoglobin. Perhaps an unintended result was that I learned, in a socio-economic context, how 18th Century English society routinely allowed young, poor, meagerly-paid boys to be hired to climb inside of chimneys to clean them -- and about the horrific scrotum cancers and visceral diseases they contracted. The section on Alzheimer's Disease covers its physiological impact, level-by-level, and was an eye-opener for me. Nuland has been deeply touched by his experiences and conveys this well. This is an amazing look inside a physician's head, the sort of detached, frank, professionalism that lurks there, and the full panoply of empathy and human feeling. One chapter is on an AIDS patient's downward spiraling journey, mixed with a sort of chronology or history of HIV. This is a seven-page history of the discovery of AIDS, and related pharmacology and forensics. Reading San Francisco newspapers my whole life has kept me informed of this insidious disease's past so I would have actually appreciated an even more detailed accounting. Missing is a detailed accounting of the fascinating race in isolating the AIDS retrovirus between the CDC and Pasteur Institute in Paris. Along with his experiences, Nuland also expresses opinions and a philosophy revolving around his work, which also gives this book value. He presents both sides of the euthanasia issue, only going as far as to criticize a particularly questionable case. He talks about the value of the family doctor, death with dignity, death by "old age" (though a doctor never can write this on the death certificate, says Nuland), suicide, and euthanasia. It is on death itself where Nuland may be his most eloquent. This book is excellent as a gift to someone who's lost a loved one to the ravages of long-enduring, punishing, terminal diseases. Someone gave me a copy of this book after I'd lost my close grandfather to a debilitating suite of diseases. It was very soothing to read Nuland's book after his death. I plan to buy several more copies. Had this book been longer and more detailed I would have given it 4-1/2 or 5 stars, instead of 4. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Great read; very interesting and thought provoking *by S***H on November 8, 2008* The language is superb! Dr. Nuland writes about the scientific medical truths in such an artistic and beautiful language. I like the way he starts off a serious subject with such drama and fiction (so it seems); but then tapers it to the serious facts of life. He draws us from a fiction to nonfiction with interest and enthusiasm. He makes the facts of death so real and natural that it takes the fear of death out of us; it becomes quite acceptable. His language really is beautiful. The way death consumes each and every one of us, whether we are healthy or sick, is so fascinatingly put. He has explained how he saw his grandmother pass away; this has shed a lot of light on the facts about death for me. The analogy with which he described the cancer cell to young unruly adolescent has a touch of humor and at the same time describes the truth about the malignant cells. It is so beautifully written. For someone who is not a doctor or someone who is more a dreamer in the fiction world, this book (which is a nonfiction-medicine) is never boring from beginning to the end. He has caught my attention from the beginning to the end. His language captivated my attention; I have never read a nonfiction book with such enthusiasm and interest before. I am able to face the facts of death more logically now. This book was an excellent read. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to accept death as a natural phenomenon and to make peace with yourself and with your loved ones at the time of death. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.no/products/199754-how-we-die-reflections-on-lifes-final-chapter-new-edition](https://www.desertcart.no/products/199754-how-we-die-reflections-on-lifes-final-chapter-new-edition) --- *Product available on Desertcart Norway* *Store origin: NO* *Last updated: 2026-09-16*