Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins by Amy Shea (Book Review #2204)

Amy Shea’s Too Poor to Die is a courageous and deeply compassionate work of narrative nonfiction that exposes an often-ignored truth: not all deaths are created equal. With empathy and precision, Shea gives voice to those who die in poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and social invisibility—people whose stories rarely receive witness or dignity.

Rather than sensationalizing suffering, Shea writes with quiet, unflinching honesty. Her essays illuminate how privilege and access shape the end of life just as profoundly as they shape the living of it. Each chapter bears witness to systemic inequities while asking readers to confront uncomfortable questions about who is remembered, who is forgotten, and what it truly means to die with dignity.

Too Poor to Die is not simply a collection of essays—it is an act of moral attention. Shea challenges us to see the humanity in lives and deaths that society too often turns away from. This is a vital, unsettling, and necessary contribution to contemporary nonfiction, one that lingers long after the last page.

Written by Jeyran Main

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