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To the river : losing my brother / Don Gillmor.

by Gillmor, Don.

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Random House of Canada, 2018.

362.28092 G482t

Gillmor, David.

Gillmor, David -- Death and burial.

Governor General's Award.

Suicide victims -- Canada -- Biography.

Suicide -- Psychological aspects.

9780345814661 (hc.)

257 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.

An exploration of suicide in which Don Gilmore attempts to understand why his brother took his own life. Which leads him to another powerful question: Why are boomers killing themselves at a far greater rate than the Silent Generation before them or the generations that have followed? In the spring of 2006, Don Gillmor travelled to Whitehorse to reconstruct the last days of his brother, David, whose truck and cowboy hat were found at the edge of the Yukon River just outside of town the previous December. David's family, his second wife, and his friends had different theories about his disappearance. Some thought David had run away; some thought he'd met with foul play; but most believed that David, a talented musician who at the age of 48 was about to give up the night life for a day job, had intentionally walked into the water. Just as Don was about to paddle the river looking for traces, David's body was found, six months after he'd gone into the river. And Don's canoe trip turned into an act of remembrance and mourning. At least David could now be laid to rest. But there was no rest for his survivors. As his brother writes, "When people die of suicide, one of the things they leave behind is suicide itself. It becomes a country. At first I was a visitor, but eventually I became a citizen."

Winner of the Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction (English), 2019.

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