Death is everywhere in this odd novel, a coming-of-age story that dissolves into notes from a funeral business. First us publication for the Scottish spence. Neil mcgraw is a lad in glasgow, an only child, the son of a d...Death is everywhere in this odd novel, a coming-of-age story that dissolves into notes from a funeral business. First us publication for the Scottish spence. Neil mcgraw is a lad in glasgow, an only child, the son of a dour undertaker permanently embittered by his wife's death during childbirth.