No mid-life adult wants to be an Octogenarian. But—if they think of the alternative—they all want one day to become one. As people approach their senior years, that hope strengthens as they realize only 5% to 15% of their life remains—if they're lucky.
Peter Schroeder describes how to steer your life towards longevity.

He shows there are only five ways to die—no alternatives-and one of these ways has your name on it. Ironically, each of these ways of dying is described by a single word beginning with the letter "A": easy to remember, hard to forget.
Now in his mid-80s, the author recounts how as a 39-year-old diagnosed with terminal bone cancer, his doctors gave him only a few years to live. In looking for alternative medical systems, he traveled to an ashram in India where for three years two Ayurvedic healers helped him plan a "serene and beautiful death." But to his doctors' amazement, the disease went into remission. Since then, Schroeder has reclaimed his once-active life for more than four decades.

As he contemplated his end of life, he narrowed the ways of dying down to only five. He gives readers a practical understanding of them and analyzes how people, as they age, might be able to influence their own personal passing.

Written in a light-hearted and somewhat whimsical style, the book is not morbid or morose. Factual and gentle in style, it goes to the heart of this inevitable outcome we all face.