An entertaining and enlightening book about how ancient peoples dealt with death—and what we might learn from them

A lively story of death, What to Expect When You’re Dead explores the fascinating death-related beliefs and practices of a wide range of ancient cultures and traditions—Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Hindu, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Etruscan, Greek, Roman, Early Christian, and Islamic. By drawing on the latest scholarship on ancient archaeology, art, literature, and funerary inscriptions, Robert Garland invites readers to put themselves in the sandals of ancient peoples and to imagine their mental state moment by moment as they sought—in ways that turn out to be remarkably similar to ours—to assist the dead on their journey to the next world and to understand life’s greatest mystery.

What to Expect When You’re Dead chronicles the ways ancient peoples answered questions such as: How to achieve a good death and afterlife? What’s the best way to dispose of a body? Do the dead face a postmortem judgement—and where do they end up? Do the dead have bodies in the afterlife—and can they eat, drink, and have sex? And what can the living do to stay on good terms with the nonliving?

Filled with intriguing stories and frequent humor, What to Expect When You’re Dead will be a morbidly delicious treat for every reader alive.

"Fascinating. . . .As well as an incredible depth of knowledge, one of the highlights of this book is the occasional light, humorous touch that Garland brings to one of life’s most difficult topics. He shows us how past societies dealt with death and the idea of an afterlife in a way that was often full of vibrancy."---Jackson von Uden, All About History 
"[A] rollicking excursion into death in the ancient world. . . .Enlightening."---Caitlin Mahar, Inside Story
"Robert Garland serves up an entertainingly broad sweep across ancient cultures to compare funerary practices and tease out differences and more often common threads, to get closer to the question of what to expect when you are dead. In a sometimes sobering and often humorous but always respectful, tone, the dead and what was done to them are being reviewed. A wealth of knowledge and information is comprised within the pages as well as brought to life by the voices of many ancient authors."---Marion Uckelmann, Antiquity
"Entertaining, witty, and engaging, this ‘tour of death’ is structured around a series of themes and questions such as ‘where to deposit the remains?’, ‘endocannibalism’, and ‘what if you come back to life as a frog?’. . . .A treasure trove of fascinating information."---Andy Salisbury, Popular History Books
"Garland adds to his scholarship with this examination of religious beliefs and practices around death. . . . His humorous, detailed, and well-researched analysis of the difficult questions of death and the afterlife is a welcome and thorough addition to the literature on eschatology." * Choice *
"Approachable and entertaining. . . .This is an exemplary study of ancient death across different cultures, belief systems, geographical areas, and time; it delivers on ancient evidence, key scholarly sources, and an excellent, readable overview of key questions and topics surrounding ancient death."---Anactoria Clarke, Journal of Classics Teaching

Robert Garland is the Roy D. and Margaret B. Wooster Professor Emeritus of the Classics at Colgate University. He is the author of many books, including The Greek Way of Death, Wandering Greeks (Princeton), and Athens Burning. He has also recorded six courses for the Great Courses, most recently God against the Gods.