The Closer We Are to Dying is a funny yet poignant evocation of an Italian family in Canada, recounted through the tales Joe Fiorito's father would tell and retell at the kitchen table after a night's drinking. As death approaches, the old man can manage only snatches of the stories that once kept his listeners spellbound. Each visit to the author's father in hospital unveils more rich layers of family history, beginning in the 1890s, when the author's great-uncle - having killed a man in anger - is forced to flee Italy for Northern Ontario, taking his wife and Joe's grandfather with him. Each enthralling tale is told and celebrated for its humour and vitality and set against the author's own deeply affecting reminiscence of the man's alcohol-induced cruelty towards both wife and children.