After the disappearance of their father & the sudden death of their mother Lee Hart & his deaf brother Ned imagine all is lost until Lee lands a traineeship at their local funeral home & discovers there is life after death. Here in the company of a crooning ex-publican a closet pole vaulter a terminally-ill hearse driver & the dead of their local town old wounds begin to heal & love arrives as a beautiful florist aboard a Fleurtations delivery van. But death is closer than Lee Hart thinks. Somewhere among the quiet lanes & sleepy farms something else is waiting. & it is closing in. Dont bring your work home with you thats what they say. Too late. Sometimes sad often hilarious & ultimately tragic & deeply moving A Trick I Learned from Dead Men" is a pitch perfect small masterpiece from a writer described by Richard Ford as having a moral grasp upon life that is grave knowing melancholy often extremely funny & ultimately optimistic."