Literary Nonfiction. Philosophy. Winner of the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Award. Translated from the German by Michael Eskin. In this penetrating, thought-provoking, and deeply personal philosophical meditation on the death of the beloved other and the turmoil into which it throws those who were close to him, philosopher Kathrin Stengel opens hitherto unseen vistas onto one of the most painful human experiences. The author's ruthless clarity of observation, coupled with razor-sharp philosophical intuition and unflinching honesty of judgment, allows her to pinpoint the personal and social complexities of life after death in a way that cannot but make us doubt some of our common practices in dealing with death and survival. Kathrin Stengel, Ph.D., is a philosopher residing in New York City with her husband and their three sons. Also available from SPD is the German language edition of this text, NOVEMBER-ROSE: EINE REDE UEBER DEN TOD.

..". exquisite, eloquent, and beautifully thought through. It's philosophy as meditation." --Claudia Weinstein, 60 Minutes, CBS
"Kathrin Stengel has landed a coup. She has succeeded in elevating the personal and intimate to the level of the universal - in writing a book that is crystal-clear and understandable, while being emotionally persuasive and inviting its reader fully to open herself to it. Her ruthless analysis and sober assessment of our dealing with survival and death notwithstanding, Kathrin Stengel has also written a story that is simply the story of a great love." --Heike Simon, Radio Bavaria, Germany

"It is a must read for everyone who has lost a partner. I lost my husband 2 1/2 years ago to colon cancer and reading this book has confirmed a lot of my feelings and thoughts. It is very helpful for those who lost a partner and are in a new relationship." --www.goodreads.com

"It is a wonderful book." --Neal Steele, WXGM-FM

"NOVEMBER ROSE: A SPEECH ON DEATH should be a required reading before you go to a funeral home or before you meet someone who has lost a beloved." --Louie Free, The Louie Free Radio Show -- WASN-AM

..". NOVEMBER ROSE: it is a treatise of such conceptual density that it seems to reveal itself to the reader only gradually and in spurts. I have read it in one sitting, but that was a mistake. Now it is sitting on my desk, on certain days I open it and read a couple of pages -- that's much better. The ideal reading pace for this book would probably be about three sentences per day -- only in this manner can this amazing book of consolation (amazing in its philosophical purity) achieve its full impact. What I mean is the subtle sense of vertigo in reading it: the reader is drawn into reflections about the inevitable, as if it had already long happened. And, indeed, it has -- and not only for the one whose voice we hear in this book, but for each of us, who listen closely ..." --Durs Grunbein

"Kathrin Stengel has written on the death of the other and how to understand the fact of that death without resorting to feel good pyscho- babble or self-improvement moralizing ... in a language as clear as reading Cioran or Unamuno ..." --Thomas McGonigle

"Dr. Kathrin Stengel has written the most excellent book on grief I have read. And I have read almost all the grief books I could find. NOVEMBER ROSE is unique among grief books because it is more truthful than most and because it speaks for the survivors of death ... All widows and widowers and other survivors of a great love will relate to the writing of this book. Best of all, survivors are given, in the last two chapters, a guide to finding their way back into life again." --Annie Moore, The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow Meet-Up