In spring 2004, Susan Sontag was diagnosed with the incurable blood cancer. She had a huge appetite for experience, and a wild, extravagant desire to live. Rieff writes movingly about being by her side during that last year and at her death, and about his own contradictory emotions: his guilt both for not consoling her enough, and for somehow colluding with her in her belief that she could beat the disease. Drawing on Sontag's journals and letters, which Rieff read after her death, and on the writings about the deaths of other great thinkers, Swimming in a Sea of Death provides a vivid portrait of Sontag in the last year of her life and a haunting meditation on mortality.

An extraordinarily open and moving account of Susan Sontag's final months, written by her son and drawing on previously unpublished letters and journals.

About the Author
David Rieff is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine.He is the author of seven previous books, including the acclaimed At the Point of a Gun: Democratic Dreams and Armed Intervention; A Bed for the Night: Humanitarianism in Crisis; and Slaughterhouse Bosnia and the Failure of the West.He lives in New York City.


Book Information
ISBN 9781847080752
Author David Rieff
Format Paperback
Page Count 192
Imprint Granta Books
Publisher Granta Books
Weight(grams) 148g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 13mm