review
Assisted suicide is much in the news just now, with cases of British citizens who travel to Switzerland to end their lives being regularly reported. The moral and legal dilemmas facing family members who accompany their – usually terminally ill – relatives are much discussed.
In an unpretentious, frank narrative Ueli Oswald gives an account of the final year of his father’s life and how the rest of the family come to terms with his decision to end his life this way.
It movingly depicts a growing closer of the male relatives, as they overcome the distance from childhood days where work had often taken priority; here, the man who had found retirement more challenging than being a successful businessman decides he will not die what he feels would be a death of indignity. Moving and thought-provoking.
All recommendations from Autumn 2009