A week later, the book was done. “He rang me up and said, ‘The good news is, I have actually finished before my deadline’ — which is an unusual call to get from an author,” Mr. Thomas said. “And then he said, ‘The bad news is, you’ll be publishing it posthumously.’ I read the manuscript and knew right away it was something exceptional. He poured his — I mean this literally — he poured his life into it: his ideas, his thoughts, his wit, his graciousness, his sense of tragedy. And he mastered this very difficult form.”

This New York Times article on David Rakoff’s final work (http://powells.us/14RaZfK) will give you all the feels: http://powells.us/15glj3b