Ten Clear Days

* A SCIENCE MAGAZINE SUMMER READING 2026 SELECTION *

"A beautiful and important novel about the end of life and what a life adds up to."—Sheila Heti, author of Alpabetical Diaries

The first in-depth fictional account of the final stages of pursuing the right to die. 

When Eric Beck Rubin's grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, requests medical assistance in dying, it divides her family. Over ten increasingly tense days, we come to know her story and its final outcome.

On a Tuesday night in August 2018, eighty-three-year-old Mary Beck is rushed by ambulance to the hospital. She wakes up to the news that her surgery was a success and her recovery is underway–but she doesn’t want to hear it. She had been preparing for her end. And with newly enacted legislation, she can demand it. 

Before a decision can be made on whether to grant her request, a member of the non-medical hospital staff, “Au.,” is brought in to record the unfolding events. But what begins as an arm’s-length report during ten mandated days that Mary awaits her fate, soon turns into a sweeping examination of a life. 

From her upbringing in pre-war Hungary and survival of the war, to the start of her new life in North America, Mary, along with her family and friends, tells the story of this complicated, forceful, fiercely loved person at every stage of her extraordinary life. A life she now fights to end on her own terms.

Eric Beck Rubin is a novelist and academic. His début, School of Velocity, was named one of the Guardian’s Books of the Year. He created and produced the Burning Books literary review and interview podcast, which ran for seven years. His academic work looks at how history is transformed through literature, monuments, and memorials. He teaches architectural and cultural history at the University of Toronto and collaborates with art galleries and architecture firms on exhibitions and design competitions. He lives in Toronto.