Things I’ve Learned from Dying

"David R. Dow's stories are always compelling. His observations are unflinching and true. Death is a part of daily routine, and in this remarkable book he takes us to the grave and back."

"David Dow is a lawyer who writes like an angel."

"He is a gifted storyteller. And regardless of your opinion on the death penalty, he sounds like good company."

"Gracefully told.... Dow weaves elegantly each person's story into a colorful and emotionally wrenching narrative that covers his fiercely honest struggle to make sense of life and death."

"Dow's lyrically written prose shimmers as he traces life's final moments for his death-row client, father-in-law, and dog Winona. Its exploration of the elusive line between life and death will leave readers speechless."

"Sooner or later, death touches every life. Sometimes, though, it comes in legions. This is the story of a death penalty lawyer from Texas who simultaneously watched his father-in-law die of cancer and defended a convicted murderer who didn't deserve to be executed. Few of us can begin to imagine such a shattering coincidence, and fewer still could ever hope to come to terms with it. But David R. Dow did, and has now written a profoundly poignant, singularly wise memoir of his experience. In the midst of death he was-and is-in life."

"In clear, powerful prose, David R. Dow reminds us of an essential truth: that human life remains cheap to the state, and for the rest of us, it is precious, momentary, and wholly fulfilling when embraced."

"David R. Dow has delivered a profound and penetrating meditation on the end of life-through the deaths of his father-in-law to cancer, a death row inmate he was representing to lethal injection, and his family's beloved dog to liver failure. The writing is clear-eyed and intimate, as he exquisitely weaves the stories of these staggering losses together. Better still, along the way he reveals the lessons for living that come from them."

"In terse, spare prose, David Dow mines the shadows between dying and death, work and family, law and justice, love and pain. A stunning meditation on all the ways in which irreversible endings can make us whole."

PRAISE FOR THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EXECUTION
"David Dow's extraordinary memoir lifts the veil on the real world of representing defendants on death row. It will stay with me a long time."

"Powerful . . . a brilliant, heartrending book."

"His prose is captivating."

"Chilling . . . authentic and heartfelt . . . He will transfix you."

"A riveting and compelling account of a Texas execution written and narrated by a lawyer in the thick of the last minute chaos. It should be read by all those who support state sponsored killing."