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The Archaeology of Loss

Life, love and the art of dying

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The Archaeology of Loss

Written by: Sarah Tarlow
Narrated by: Sarah Tarlow
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About this listen

My whole adult life, I have made a study of death.

A stunning blend of the personal and professional, The Archaeology of Loss is Sarah Tarlow’s first memoir. An accomplished archaeologist, much of Sarah’s work is concerned with the ritual and belief behind the practice of grief. In 2012, she was awarded the Chair in Archaeology at the University of Leicester. But in the years that followed this appointment, Sarah’s husband, Mark, would begin to suffer from a progressive but undiagnosed illness, finally resulting in his inability to drive, to walk, to taste or to care for himself. Though Sarah had devoted her professional life to the study of emotion, of how we anticipate and experience grief, nothing could have prepared her for the realities of care-giving, of losing someone you love and the helplessness attached to both.

A fiercely honest and unique memoir, The Archaeology of Loss describes a collective experience with an unflinching and singular gaze and will undoubtedly speak to listeners of The Salt Path and H is for Hawk. Told with humour, intelligence and urgency, this is an unforgettable experience.

 Archaeology Death & Grief Self-Help Women

Critic Reviews

Extraordinary, unflinching, wonderful, moving (Nina Stibbe, author of Love, Nina)
Bracingly candid . . . Digs away at our collective fantasy that in dying or caring for the dying we are at our best. In reality, in either role we are often withdrawn, in pain, resentful, bad-tempered: our worst . . . addictively unsentimental
Scrupulously honest . . . Threaded through with tantalizing glimpses of the world of archaeology, Tarlow’s book is a raw, courageous examination of a sad ending to an uneasy relationship.
In Archaeology of Loss Sarah Tarlow has harnessed the consoling power of unvarnished truth. Direct, honest and deeply compassionate, this book is a companion for anyone navigating the hardships of loss and uncertainty, but it's also a celebration of all that love can stretch to hold. Informed by both Tarlow's lived experience and perspective as an archaeologist, it asks vital questions about what it means to live and die well. I found it both thought-provoking and moving. (Octavia Bright, author of This Ragged Grace)
The narrator has the scholar’s inability to soften or sweeten what she knows, which is that we don’t always love the dying and the dead, and that rage and mixed feelings are at least as interesting as sorrow. Look elsewhere for cheeriness; the pleasures offered here are those of intelligence and complexity in the hard times that will come to many of us. (Sarah Moss)
Brave, bold and exquisitely told and with such vibrancy and force, The Archaeology of Loss is a personal story of love, grief, and pain perfectly framed by the author's deep knowledge of the archaeologies of death and mourning. (Helen Paris, author of Lost Property)
A wonderful work of memoir . . . powerful, fiercely honest, grippingly written and utterly immersive. (Harry Whitehead, author of The Cannibal Spirit)
A tender and big-hearted embrace of a book, one that holds whole worlds in its arms: courtship, scholarship, reflections on death and its rituals. Here is an archeologist welding her intellectual acumen to her experience of her husband's terminal illness. A poetic excavation of loss, grief and ritual. (Graham Caveney, author of The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness)
A meticulously clear yet tender self-excavation exploring love and bereavement, today and through time, from a brilliant archaeologist. (Rebecca Wragg Sykes, author of Kindred)
Profound and poignant . . . beautifully written. (Melanie Giles)
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