The Closer We Are to Dying: A Memoir of Father and Family

In the 1950s in Fort William, Ontario, everyone knew Dusty Fiorito. He was handsome and hard and hot-tempered. A letter carrier, a small-town trombonist, an occasional crooner, and a heavy drinker, Dusty was both the keeper and maker of his Italian family’s many stories. At the end of his life, as Dusty lay dying in a hospital, Joe sat with him at night, listening one last time to the family legends. Rich and compelling, The Closer We Are to Dying is Joe Fiorito’s brilliant tribute to a complicated man and an affecting testament to the power of family ties.