This is a vivid, unsentimental yet intensely moving portrayal of an old man who, in spite of his failing health, stubbornly continues to actively enjoy life. This is a vivid, unsentimental yet intensely moving portrayal of an old man who, in spite of his failing health, stubbornly continues to actively enjoy life - going to the pub, smoking and drinking, doing stonemason's jobs, observing and commenting on the people around him. His environment and social relationships - as well as those of his son, the narrator - are portrayed with great attention to detail, providing us with an unfamiliar, realistic and sometimes humorous picture of run-of-the-mill everyday life in a provincial part of Switzerland in the 1980s. In Epitaph for a Working Man, Erhard von Bren's laconic account, written from the son's viewpoint, is dispassionate and occasionally harsh, but it becomes a loving homage to the father. The old man's life is encapsulated in his final year: his toughness and his weakness, his dedication, his roughness and his gentleness.