In Briefly Perfectly Human, death doula Alua Arthur blends humor, grief, and vulnerability in a
memoir that invites readers to see mortality as a path to deeper living. Her storytelling is tender
and compelling, though at times more focused on her own journey than on the practice of
death work itself. Still, the book’s power lies in its candor and its challenge: to face death
directly and, in doing so, to live more fully.
In her TED Talk (which can be seen here), Ms. Arthur tells us we can absolve
ourselves of life having some grand purpose, and simply be human. And that is enough.