The Church of Santa Claus
The Church of Santa Claus—St. Nicholas—
in Galway’s Latin Quarter was once used
by Cromwell’s men, in 1652
to stable their horses after the siege...
Grieving my daughter’s suicide in a time of wider grief
My years of experience as an undertaker didn’t make it easier.
The sick of the palsy healed and his sins forgiven
Engraving by James Newton after Charles Reuben Ryley, 1795...
Thomas Lynch's Christmas picks
I recommend Bonnie Jo Campbell’s Mothers, Tell Your Daughters (Norton), a selection of short stories about mostly hardscrabble, down-market women in southwestern lower Michigan....
Ask a mortician
Morticians haven't charged too much, they've done too much. With this precisely correct claim, Caitlin Doughty earns her contrarian stripes.
A Door in the Ocean, by David McGlynn
In his sparkling new collection of essays, David McGlynn wrestles with some of the same fierce angels that haunt his short stories.
Muckraking pilgrim
Michael Moore's work is that of a repentant sinner called to bring the news—not all of it good—to folks who would rather do without it.
Thomas Lynch's formative moments
I was raised by Irish Catholics. Even as I write that it sounds a
little like "wolves" or some especially feral class of creature. I don't...