Christopher’s Summer: A Father & Son Explore the Mysteries of Life

I’m going to die , nine-year-old Christopher Dugan announced to his father one summer afternoon as they sat together on a hammock, eating popsicles and watching the loons floating on the nearby lake where they were vacationing.

In obvious shock, Christopher’s father replied incredulously, What?

I’m going to die , Christopher repeated. So are you. I need to know when, and how. I don’t want it to be painful. What is it like when you die? And where do you go? You’re a minister, so you know about these things .

Thus began a series of remarkable father-son conversations during the summer of 1998 in which Christopher and Jeffrey Dugan began to think and talk together about life – the amazing gift shared by all people – and death. These conversations are brought together in Christopher’s Summer as the two explore Christopher’s fears together and discover the beauty inherent in the full circle of life. Ultimately, both father and son are changed by their conversations, and readers will be, too.

Life and death, right and wrong, hope and fear, and questions of who we are and why we live are all discussed with reverence but without being preachy or overtly religious. A wonderfully insightful and practical book reminiscent of Tuesdays with Morrie (but from the perspective of the early years of life), it is a perfect read for everyone who is ready to think honestly about what life and death are all about.

Indeed, the summer-long conversation recorded in Christopher’s Summer is a dialogue that can occur between the adult and the child within each of us as we gradually find our way to spiritual maturity and take possession of our ultimate and eternal freedom and identity.