This is a ‘vital’ book, as Paul Cann claims in the first sentence in the Foreword. After having the opportunity to acquaint myself with this work over the past few months, I strongly agree – vital both in the sense of it being dynamic, in stimulating thought and reflection, and addressing paradoxes, as well as in terms of its potential importance. This edited book makes a major contribution in filling the void in literature about what has been termed ‘the disadvantaged dying’ (p. xv): that is, those dying as older adults. The editors should be congratulated for so successfully enjoining some of the strongest experts in the fields of palliative care and care of the elderly to link knowledge and experience from a wide variety of relevant areas in this volume.

The book consists of five sections, which are in turn composed of four to six chapters each. Although the chapters naturally vary, they are of generally high quality. There are several themes which both cross-cut the sections of this book and are highlighted in different degrees in respective sections. As rightly pointed out by the editors, there is an effort to consider dying within wider socio-cultural frameworks about living and ageing. Underlying reasons for the lack of engagement of the palliative care community in issues of ageing and non-cancer death are considered (e.g. in Section 1, ‘What is so Different About Dying Old?’). A public health perspective is emphasised, including the need to move issues of dying from the sole realm of health and social care into a broader framework of community involvement (highlighted in Section 2, ‘What Does a Public Health Perspective Bring to Understandings of Ageing and End of Life?’). At the same time, due consideration is given existing forms for care provision in the book. The role of family (in a broad sense) is considered central in different ways: e.g. as an unpaid workforce caring for dying older people, in terms of their own needs, and in relationships with professional care providers (Section 3, ‘Family and Professional Carers as Partners in Care-giving’). The fourth section, ‘The Significance of Place at the End of Life’, is less readily characterised as focusing specifically on one of these common themes, as it includes both chapters with specific examples of efforts to improve care and chapters which address more general, and often neglected, issues related to space and place: for example, that of sensory environment (pp. 209–11).

Despite the many strengths of this book, I do note some weaknesses. It needs to be recognised that the well-acknowledged difficulties in defining both palliative care and end-of-life are neither solved nor clarified further here, and only sporadically acknowledged. While this may hinder understanding in some respects – for example, what does the end of life refer to? Hours, days, weeks, months or years? Or, most likely, different time-frames in different chapters. This ambivalence is a feature of palliative and end-of-life scholarship that is far from unique for this volume.

I found the fifth and final section of the book, ‘Some Thoughts on Priorities for Research, Education, and Service Development’, disappointing. It consists of six very short – two to three pages each – chapters by well-renowned contributors in the area. It may well be the design of this section compared to the previous ones that is problematic: the early chapters are longer, many of them surprisingly sophisticated and well-nuanced, giving much food for thought and reflection. The title of this last section promises reflection of a sort that may not be possible in these short pieces, several of which seemed to be relatively prescriptive while remaining quite general. In addition, while the first four sections each begin with a brief and helpful introduction by the editors who nicely summarise salient points in the chapters, this is not the case for the fifth and final section, although the editors do end the book with a short general conclusion. A rather minor criticism is that, given the variety of backgrounds and disciplines represented among these experts, I missed having access to a bio-sketch of the authors.

Despite these relatively limited weaknesses, I thoroughly recommend this book for a broad readership of academics, students and clinicians interested in further developing end-of-life care and care for older adults. In their conclusion (p. 274), the editors mention that one message of this book is the need for greater integration – for example, between theoretical perspectives and bodies of knowledge; in service provision; between disciplines; and between professionals and communities, policy makers and stakeholders, especially in light of the ‘dis-integration’ (p. xvi) exemplified in policies and practices throughout the book. I believe that those involved in authoring and editing this book have all the reason to be pleased with their strong and successful contribution toward increased integration.