Sign-In
Cart![Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real about the End /]Calua Arthur](/product/productimage/9780063240063.jpg)
Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real about the End /]Calua Arthur
Paperback
Biographies GeneralDeath & Dying
Publisher Price: $18.99
ISBN13: 9780063240063
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: Apr 29 2025
Pages: 272
Weight: 0.30
Height: 0.71 Width: 5.20 Depth: 7.95
Language: English
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER New York Times' Staff Favorite Book of the Year Boston Globe Best Book of the Year
A deeply transformative memoir that reframes how we think about death and how it can help us lead better, more fulfilling and authentic lives, from America's most visible death doula.
A truly unique, inspiring perspective on the time we have, what we do with it, and how we let go of this world.... There is no one I'd trust more to guide me through an understanding of death, and how it informs life. -- Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of Mad Honey and The Book of Two Ways
Briefly Perfectly Human is a beautiful, raw, light-bringing experience. Alua's voice is shimmering, singular, and pulses with humor, vulnerability, insight, and refreshing candor.... Be prepared for it to grab you, hold you tight, and raise the roof on the power of human connection. -- Tembi Locke, author of From Scratch: A Memoir of Love, Sicily, and Finding Home
For her clients and everyone who has been inspired by her humanity, Alua Arthur is a friend at the end of the world. As our country's leading death doula, she's spreading a transformative message: thinking about your death--whether imminent or not--will breathe wild, new potential into your life.
Warm, generous, and funny AF, Alua supports and helps manage end-of-life care on many levels. The business matters, medical directives, memorial planning; but also honoring the quiet moments, when monitors are beeping and loved ones have stepped out to get some air--or maybe not shown up at all--and her clients become deeply contemplative and want to talk. Aching, unfinished business often emerges. Alua has been present for thousands of these sacred moments--when regrets, fears, secret joys, hidden affairs, and dim realities are finally said aloud. When this happens, Alua focuses her attention at the pulsing center of her clients' anguish and creates space for them, and sometimes their loved ones, to find peace.
This has had a profound effect on Alua, who was already no stranger to death's periphery. Her family fled a murderous coup d'état in Ghana in the 1980s. She has suffered major, debilitating depressions. And her dear friend and brother-in-law died of lymphoma. Advocating for him in his final months is what led Alua to her life's calling. She knows firsthand the power of bearing witness and telling the truth about life's painful complexities, because they do not disappear when you look the other way. They wait for you.
Briefly Perfectly Human is a life-changing, soul-gathering debut, by a writer whose empathy, tenderness, and wisdom shimmers on the page. Alua Arthur combines intimate storytelling with a passionate appeal for loving, courageous end-of-life care--what she calls death embrace. Hers is a powerful testament to getting in touch with something deeper in our lives, by embracing the fact of our own mortality. Hold that truth in your mind, Alua says, and wondrous things will begin to grow around it.
Also from
Arthur, Alua
Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real about the End
Arthur, Alua
Hardcover
Also in
Biographies General
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to his son: Perspectives, Ideology, and Wisdom
Rockefeller, J. D.
Paperback
Within the House of Murdaugh: Amid a Unique Friendship, Blanca and Maggie
Weaver, Mary Frances
Turrubiate-Simpson, Blanca
Paperback
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Hardcover
Chasing Evil: Shocking Crimes, Supernatural Forces, and an FBI Agent's Search for Hope and Justice
Hilland, Robert
Edward, John
Hardcover
Are You Mad at Me?: How to Stop Focusing on What Others Think and Start Living for You
Josephson, Meg
Hardcover
Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi's Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging
Buchdahl, Angela
Hardcover
Bottom of the Pyramid: A Memoir of Persevering, Dancing for Myself, and Starring in My Own Life
Sioux, Nia
Hardcover
Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home
Grant, Stephen Starring
Hardcover
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures
Sheldrake, Merlin
Paperback
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Hardcover
Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up
Barry, Dave
Hardcover
Brothers of the Gun: Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a Reckoning in Tombstone
Gardner, Mark Lee
Hardcover
The Boys in the Light: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood
Willner, Nina
Hardcover
Uncommon Favor: Basketball, North Philly, My Mother, and the Life Lessons I Learned from All Three
Staley, Dawn
Hardcover
Midnight Flyboys: The American Bomber Crews and Allied Secret Agents Who Aided the French Resistance in World War II
Henderson, Bruce
Hardcover
The First Eight: A Personal History of the Pioneering Black Congressmen Who Shaped a Nation
Clyburn, Jim
Hardcover
The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage That Made an American Icon
Shapiro, Laurie Gwen
Hardcover
The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland
Young, Michelle
Hardcover
The Perfect Father: The True Story of Chris Watts, His All-American Family, and a Shocking Murder
Glatt, John
Paperback
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
Gwynne, S. C.
Paperback
Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend
Romney, Rebecca
Hardcover
When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines
Carter, Graydon
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice (Large Print Edition)
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Paperback
The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case
Hogan, Chuck
Hardcover
Medicine River: A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
Pember, Mary Annette
Hardcover