To the River: Losing My Brother Audiobook (Free)

WINNER OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL’S LITERARY AWARD FOR nonfiction

An eloquent and haunting exploration of suicide where one of Canada’s most gifted authors attempts to comprehend why his sibling took his own life. That leads him to some other powerful question: Why are boomers killing themselves at a lot better rate compared to the Silent Generation before them or the generations that have implemented?

In the spring of 2006, Don Gillmor travelled to Whitehorse to reconstruct the last days of his brother, going to the River: Losing MY BUDDY David, whose truck and cowboy hat were found at the advantage from the Yukon River just beyond town the previous December. David’s family members, his second wife, and his friends had different theories about his disappearance. Some believed David had try to escape; some thought he’d fulfilled with foul play; but most thought that David, a talented musician who at the age of 48 was about to give up the night time life for any day job, experienced intentionally walked into the water. Just as Don was about to paddle the river looking for traces, David’s body was found, half a year after he’d gone into the river. And Don’s canoe trip turned into an action of remembrance and mourning.

At least David could now become laid to rest. But there was no rest for his survivors. As his brother writes, ‘When people pass away of suicide, one of the things they keep behind is definitely suicide itself. It turns into a country. Initially I used to be a visitor, but eventually I became a citizen.’ Within this sensitive, probing, surprising function, Don Gillmor brings back again news from that nation for all those who wonder why people get rid of themselves. And why, for the very first time, it’s not the teenaged or older people who have the highest suicide rate, however the middle aged. Especially men.