TO THE RIVER

An eloquent and haunting exploration of suicide by a writer whose brother took his own life at age 48.

In the spring of 2006, Don Gillmor traveled to Whitehorse to reconstruct his brother's last days. David's truck and cowboy hat were found at the edge of the Yukon River just outside of town the previous December. David's family and friends had different theories about his disappearance. Some thought David had run away; some thought he'd met with foul play; but most believed that David, a talented musician who was about to give up the night life for a day job, had intentionally walked into the water. Just as Gillmor was about to search the river, David's body was found, six months after he'd gone in.

As Gillmor writes, “When people die of suicide, one of the things they leave behind is suicide itself. It becomes a country. At first I was a visitor, but eventually I became a citizen.” In this tender, probing, surprising work, Gillmor brings back news from that country for all of us who wonder why people kill themselves. And why, for the first time, it's not the teenaged or the elderly who have the highest suicide rate, but the middle aged, especially men. Middle age used to be the most stable stretch in a person's life. Now, the boomer suicide rate is 60% higher than the previous generation's and more than twice as high as the rate for millennials.

DON GILLMOR's journalism on suicide has earned him both a National Newspaper Award and a National Magazine Award. The critically acclaimed author of numerous works of fiction, non-fiction, and books for children, Gillmor lives in Toronto.