Heaven's Coast

In 1993, Mark Doty's lover, Wally Roberts, died of AIDS. In this book, Doty tells the story of their relationship, the effect the disease had on their lives, and Wally's death and the aftermath.

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HEAVEN'S COAST is an anatomy of loss: tender, heartbreaking, consoling and, ultimately, incredibly moving. Beginning with the first onset of AIDS and its lengthening shadow over a blisful relationship, the book follows the shifting patterns between two lovers as the illness takes hold - the change in them and the change in the way they perceive the world, through the lens of grief. The book examines the nature of AIDS as opposed to other illnesses, the responses of society, the frustration of medical care and the exhausting - and ocassionally uplifting - burden of caring for the dying at home. Shot through with humour, insight and passages of quite remarkable beauty, HEAVEN'S COAST is an exquisite piece of writing: poetic, philosophical, and devastatingly sad.