November 11 @ 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Tombs and Tomes Book Club November (Virtual)

This month’s pick

The Secret Life of a Cemetery
The Wild Nature and Enchanting Lore of Père-Lachaise

Tombs and Tomes is Congressional Cemetery’s book club.

We meet every other month on the second Tuesday in our historic Chapel, and we discuss primarily non-fiction books.

Our book selections have no rhyme and reason; however, our choices tend to stray towards the macabre, as is natural for a cemetery book club. Our very first meeting was in September 2013 and we chose to read Stiff, by Mary Roach.

It’s free to join, and mostly free to attend. For each in-person meeting, we simply ask that you bring either a $5 donation or a bit of food or wine to share with the group. Extra points for brownies!

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Gallot, head curator of Père Lachaise and son of a grave stonemason, pulls back the curtains on his otherworldly workplace of Père Lachaise—a cemetery crammed with tourists in the high season and mourners year-round, but also a natural paradise, where foxes roam, birds flit between trees, and wildflowers and moss encroach onto tombstones.

Gallot reveals the secret world of Père Lachaise—its Napoleonic origins, its unusual graves and monuments—alongside touching stories from his working life in the cemetery. He demystifies his unusual and often misunderstood profession, which in reality requires much more contact with living people than dead ones. In doing so, he provides insight into the history of graveyards and our evolving relationship with death.

Still interested? RSVP Here!

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