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The Globe and Mail’s preeminent obituary writer has selected fifty Canadians who died between 2000 and 2010. Her goal was to provide a “composite picture of Canadian politics and society in the twentieth century, from before the First World War to the Internet age.”

Sandra Martin readily admits that obituaries are not historical biography; these shorter works are limited by not having the perspective that only the distance of time can offer. In this collection based on her writings for the newspaper, Martin has updated and added to obituaries about people whose passage was just a few short years ago.

In Working the Dead Beat, she writes about the purpose and challenges of obituaries and stresses the importance of “getting it right,” since for many of these individuals the obituary will stand for some time as the sole first draft of their historical record.

Martin achieves her goal in this fascinating collection of life stories. Her subjects range from the most iconic of changemakers, like former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the National Ballet’s Celia Franca, to Ralph Lung Kee Lee, one of the last Chinese head tax survivors, and Helen Kathleen Allen, whose regular adoption columns in the Toronto Telegraph most assuredly changed many lives.

While the collection as a whole tells a story about our society and the people who have shaped it, the greatest treasure Martin offers comes from the insights that appear with each entry — these insights tell a great story about the human journey.