Product details
- ISBN 9781914148828
- Publication Date: 23 Oct 2025
- Publisher: Fairlight Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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'Profoundly moving; I loved this book.' -Liz Nugent
Seeking a new purpose in life, Swiss widower Ruedi signs up to work with Depart, an assisted dying organisation. His role is to spend time with those who have sought out Depart's services, acting as a guide and companion in their final weeks.
Margrit, his crotchety first client, wants only to get on with things. Marking time in a care home, with poor health weighing down on her, she has decided it's time to go. Her family are upset by her choice, but she is determined. By the end of the summer, she'll have left the world behind - and on her own terms.
Yet when she and Ruedi realise their paths have crossed once before, an unexpected bond forms. One that will illuminate both their lives.
Originally from Dublin, Clare O'Dea has lived in Switzerland since 2003. After studying French and Russian at Trinity College Dublin, she had a varied media career in Ireland, with a freelance stint in Russia. Clare worked for the state broadcaster (RTE), the Irish Times, Today FM and the Guna Nua Theatre Company. In Switzerland, she worked for ten years for the international news service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.
Her first non-fiction book, The Naked Swiss: A Nation Behind 10 Myths, was published in 2016 by Bergli Books. A second updated edition followed in 2018. Clare turned to Ireland as a subject for her second book, The Naked Irish: Portrait of a Nation Beyond the Cliches, published in 2019 by Red Stag Books. She has published several short stories; her story 'The Favour' was shortlisted for the 2018 Hennessy New Irish Writing Awards and another story, 'The Obituary', was highly commended in the 2019 Irish Book Awards.
Clare grew up in a bilingual home speaking English and Irish. She now speaks five languages. She lives in the bilingual (French/German) town of Fribourg with her husband and three daughters.
