Ferryman: The life and deathwork of Ephraim Finch

$34.99

SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME

Katia Ariel

Ferryman: The Life and Deathwork of Ephraim Finch is a profoundly moving exploration of life, loss, and legacy. Blending biography, memoir, and cultural history, Katia Ariel brings to life the remarkable story of Ephraim Finch OAM—a deathworker, community builder, and guardian of cultural memory.

Drawing from Finch’s handwritten journals and intimate interviews, Ariel masterfully explores themes of grief, memory, ritual, and the celebration of life, all with tenderness and wisdom. Finch’s extraordinary journey—from his working-class Sydney upbringing to his conversion to Orthodox Judaism, and later, his pivotal role as director of Melbourne’s Jewish Burial Society—offers a deeply human reflection on belonging, service, and the enduring power of stories.

For thirty years Finch provided unwavering support to bereaved families, including Holocaust survivors, while seamlessly navigating coroners, police, clergy, and medical professionals. A consummate connector, he preserved sacred Jewish traditions while fostering understanding across religious and secular communities, making death and its rituals less daunting and more accessible.

At a time of increasing cultural division and societal fractures, Ferryman is a vital and timely story—one that reminds us of the power of compassion, service, and the sacredness of life itself.

With a foreword by Arnold Zable and praise from literary luminaries such as Hannah Kent, Raimond Gaita, Chloe Hooper, and Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Ferryman is an essential addition to our literary and cultural landscape.

SIGNED COPIES AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED TIME

Katia Ariel

Ferryman: The Life and Deathwork of Ephraim Finch is a profoundly moving exploration of life, loss, and legacy. Blending biography, memoir, and cultural history, Katia Ariel brings to life the remarkable story of Ephraim Finch OAM—a deathworker, community builder, and guardian of cultural memory.

Drawing from Finch’s handwritten journals and intimate interviews, Ariel masterfully explores themes of grief, memory, ritual, and the celebration of life, all with tenderness and wisdom. Finch’s extraordinary journey—from his working-class Sydney upbringing to his conversion to Orthodox Judaism, and later, his pivotal role as director of Melbourne’s Jewish Burial Society—offers a deeply human reflection on belonging, service, and the enduring power of stories.

For thirty years Finch provided unwavering support to bereaved families, including Holocaust survivors, while seamlessly navigating coroners, police, clergy, and medical professionals. A consummate connector, he preserved sacred Jewish traditions while fostering understanding across religious and secular communities, making death and its rituals less daunting and more accessible.

At a time of increasing cultural division and societal fractures, Ferryman is a vital and timely story—one that reminds us of the power of compassion, service, and the sacredness of life itself.

With a foreword by Arnold Zable and praise from literary luminaries such as Hannah Kent, Raimond Gaita, Chloe Hooper, and Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Ferryman is an essential addition to our literary and cultural landscape.

  • June 2025 | 9781925893861 | 252 pages | Paperback | 234 × 153mm | Biography

  • biography, memoir, cultural history, deathworker, community builder, Jewish cultural memory, Melbourne Jewish Burial Society, Ephraim Finch, traditions, sacredness of life

  • 9781925893861

  • start reading now

Praise for Ferryman

“Ferryman is a compassionate portrait of a man who has spent a lifetime in service of his community. Katia Ariel’s consideration of belonging, faith, and the way we are all inextricably woven into tapestries of time, place and history - both before and after death - is beautifully written and deeply moving.”
— Hannah Kent

A book full of wisdom by a writer of exquisite talent.
— Chloe Hooper

Many books have been written urging us not to be in denial about death. I have read few as deep as this one. Ariel and Finch have bequeathed a gift to anyone for whom it matters to honour their humanity by celebrating rather than lamenting their nature as essentially embodied, mortal beings.
— Raimond Gaita

Tender, heartfelt and infused with deep wisdom, Ferryman is both a moving portrait of a remarkable man, and a journey through generations of Australian Jewish history. Katia Ariel's masterful prose gently peels back the layers of Ephraim's personal history, revealing a complex man transformed by faith who has taken upon himself to act as a living repository for a community's darkest, saddest and most life-affirming stories.

Through Ephraim we gain insights into the fragility and preciousness of life, the value of service and the restorative balm of communal belonging.
This book is for anyone who has ever thought about why we live and why we die, and it’s for those of us who usually avoid such thoughts, too.
— Kylie Moore-Gilbert

Katia Ariel is a rare and beautiful writer, able to wear another’s skin, look into their heart and somehow bear their pain. Her writing doesn’t just bear witness, it sings back to the world.
––Marina Benjamin

Start reading the book

A powerful and deeply moving portrait of a man who spent his life guiding others through death with compassion, ritual, and unwavering service. Blending biography, memoir, and cultural history, this remarkable book invites readers to rethink how we honour the dead—and the living—in a time of division and change.

More from Katia Ariel:

Listen to this interview with Richard Fidler on ABC Conversations
Read reviews in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times, WA Today, J-Wire
Read articles in The Australian Jewish News, The Jewish Independent
Read extract in The Guardian, Good Reading Magazine

Reader Reviews

“Ferryman is an exquisite story told with deep sensitivity. In creating such a mercurial, exquisitely wrought and tender portrait, Katia Ariel has given us all a gift.”
— Compulsive Reader