A strikingly frank diary of the Dutch gerontologist, philosopher and writer Bert Keyser, tracing the last stage of the life of patients at a charity home that combines a clinic, a nursing home and a hospice. Piercing realism turns the reader into an accomplice in everything that happens to the characters in the book. People's destinies form a mosaic of bright, deep artistic images. The book comprehensively and convincingly reveals the physical and spiritual feat of a doctor who does not leave people alone with suffering; his dedication in providing spiritual support to terminally ill people who sometimes choose voluntary death (euthanasia is legalized in the Netherlands). The vast space of culture - writers, philosophers, artists, musicians, poets from antiquity to our time - frames brilliant discussions about life and death, about love, about human dignity, about faith and unbelief, full of caustic sarcasm, poignant lyricism, humor and bitter irony . Bert Keyser's bestseller is constantly republished both in the original and in translations.