Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates: Using Philosophy (And Jokes) to Explore Life, Death, the Afterlife, and Everything in Between

From the authors of the bestselling Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, an uproarious new book on the meaning of death (and life, too)

The new book by the bestselling authors of Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar is a hilarious take on the philosophy, theology, and psychology of mortality and immortality. That is, Death. The authors pry open the coffin lid on this one, looking at the Big D and also its prequel, Life, and its sequel, the Hereafter. Philosophers such as Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Camus, and Sartre have been wrestling with the meaning of death for as long as they have been wrestling with the meaning of life. Fortunately, humorists have been keeping pace with the major thinkers by creating gags about dying. Death’s funny that way—it gets everybody’s attention.

Death has gotten a bad rap. It’s time to take a closer look at what the Deep Thinkers have to say on the subject, and there are no better guides than Cathcart and Klein.

Daniel Klein is the coauthor (with Thomas Cathcart) of the international bestseller Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar and Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates. The author or coauthor of thirty other books, including The Half-Jewish Book, the Elvis Presley mystery series (Kill Me Tender, Blue Suede Clues), and the award-winning novel The History of Now, Klein holds a degree in philosophy from Harvard University and lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife, Freke Vuijst.