Death Sentences

'As surprising, perhaps even as unbelievable, as it might seem, the thought of recording these thirteen encounters under their present title occurred to me sometime before my own diagnosis.' Zyrisa is in her mid-thirties when she finds herself having to contemplate the prospect of her own death, following an unexpected health scare. She claims, however, that this is not the reason she had decided to record a series of encounters, some dating back to her childhood and all reflecting experiences of mortality. From a conversation on a transatlantic flight about a passenger's fear of flying, to a widow's seemingly inexplicable decision to sell her home, move into a luxury hotel, and purchase still-life paintings, to a music teacher who is convinced that she is training one of her pupils for her career in a next life, these encounters reveal the various ways in which our sense of our own mortality can shape our lives, leading us to behave in ways that can often seem incomprehensible, but that may also teach us som