A focused personal and ethical examination of life in the face of death, by one of our most acclaimed essayists

'Nancy Mairs writes knowingly, even lovingly, about a subject most of us seek to avoid: death and its essential place in life. Her gripping meditations. . . both comfort and provoke with their spiritual strength and hard-won wisdom.'
-O Magazine

'The ten essays in Nancy Mairs's A Troubled Guest . . . radiate the truest kinds of insight about life, illness, death, and above all, love.'
-Elle Magazine

'Through these evocative and often affecting essays, Mairs charts a territory that defines the corporeal and the spiritual, delineating as much about how we live as how we die.'
-Publishers Weekly

'In clear, unaffected prose that quickly establishes -along with her candor-an intimacy with the reader, Mairs begins by explaining her feelings toward her own impending death. . . . Not self-help by any stretch, but it will be of
interest to anyone recently touched by death.'
-Kirkus Reviews

On Ordinary Time:

'A conversion from good-girl spirituality to something much deeper and darker. . . . A remarkable accomplishment. . . . A relentlessly physical writer, as fiercely committed to her art as to her spiritual development.'
-Kathleen Norris, The New York Times Book Review

On Carnal Acts:

'Eloquent and remarkable. . . . I closed Carnal Acts feeling a hundred times more prepared for whatever perils and joys lie ahead of me.'
-Barbara Kingsolver

Nancy Mairs is author of seven books, including Waist-High in the World (Beacon / 7087-4 / $14.00 pb), Ordinary Time (Beacon / 7057-2 / $18.00 pb), Voice Lessons (Beacon / 6007-0 / $11.00 pb), Carnal Acts (Beacon / 7085-8 / $11.00 pb), and Remembering the Bone House (Beacon / 7069-6 / $12.95 pb). She lives in Tucson, Arizona, with her husband, George.