A Prayer for the Dying
~ A Capsule Book Review by Allen Kopp ~

A Prayer for the Dying is a novel by American writer Stewart O’Nan. I met Stewart O’Nan at a book-signing event several years ago, when he was promoting his nonfiction book, The Circus Fire.

A Prayer for the Dying is set in the fictitious town of Friendship, Wisconsin. The time is about 1870. The principal character is a young man, age about thirty, named Jacob Hansen. He is a Civil War veteran and the town’s undertaker. Besides being the undertaker, he is also the sheriff and a minister. He is a good man and a just man. He has a wife, Marta, and an infant daughter, Amelia.

When a diphtheria epidemic strikes the town, Jacob Hansen is tested in a way he never believed possible. The disease spreads day to day. People in town begin dying in alarming numbers. An old man at the church tolls the church bell whenever another person dies, so the church bell is a constant accompaniment to everything that happens.

The people who don’t have the disease want to go to a safer place but aren’t allowed to leave because the town is under quarantine. This situation brings out a lot of ugly emotions in people. They just might kill anybody who won’t let them leave.

When Jacob’s baby daughter, Amelia, gets the disease, she soon dies. Since Jacob is the undertaker, he prepares her body for burial and buries her in his yard. He belives, for some reason, that he needs to keep her death a secret. When Jacob’s wife contracts the diease and dies within a few days, he embalms her body and keeps her in the house with him, pretending she is still alive.

Every day the disease gets worse and more people die. Could things be any worse? The answer is yes. An out-of-control forest fire threatens to consume the town. Several small towns have already been destroyed by the fire.

As a lawman and man of God, Jacob Hansen is torn between his duty to the sick people in the town who have the disease and the well people who want to escape. His own life has already been torn asunder. If he survives the ordeal and doesn’t get the disease, what does he have left to live for? His family is dead. The fire is going to destroy the town. He might as well lay down and die. Or, he can take action and try to help the few uninfected citizens of the town make their escape.

Copyright © 2023 by Allen Kopp