Hear an excerpt from David Rakoff's posthumous novel read by Ira Glass and many others
Longtime This American Life contributor David Rakoff died of cancer last August, inspiring a deeply moving tribute episode from Ira Glass and company. Now, in anticipation of the release of Rakoff’s posthumous first novel Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish, Random House has put out an extensive book trailer featuring Glass, Jackie Hoffman, Jodi Lennon, George Stroumboulopoulos, and many other writers and comedians, reading Rakoff’s tale of the scorpion and tortoise from “Speak Now Or Forever Hold Your Peace.” There’s even a clip of Rakoff himself, looking haggard in the final stages of terminal cancer, reading the audiobook he scrambled to complete before his death, a haunting image to go along with the final act of This American Life’s tribute episode. The novel—say the title and “a novel by” to get the lyrical, Seussian rhythm of Rakoff’s verse—hits stores in July.