Suicide has been part of human life since the dawn of time, but has never been so widely and openly discussed as it is today. With the ongoing debate about the rights of the terminally ill to end their own lives, the phenomenon of Internet sites dedicated to advice on how to end your life, and the craze for mass suicides among the Japanese, suicide is rarely out of the news in the 21st century.

Udo Grashoff has discovered 45 suicide notes that help us to better understand why despairing people commit the ultimate taboo. In this fascinating collection those reasons are remarkably universal, from unrequited love, to loss of a spouse, to simple frustration with a domestic situation.

Despite the universality of its subject matter, this book is unique.