Author Katia Ariel tells the story of Ephraim Finch, a man synonymous with death in the Melbourne Jewish community. He started life as Geoffrey William, the son of a butcher, who would go on to become a master builder before his life became unrecognisable to him.

Several years ago, Melbourne author and book editor, Katia was invited to write Ephraim's biography.

Katia was already familiar with his name.

She had seen the way mourners uttered his name and felt a sense of calm and ease within their sorrow, because they trusted Ephraim as a master of death who would know how to lead them through the world of mourning.

Ephraim started life as Geoffrey William Finch, the son of a butcher in the working class suburb of Ashfield in Sydney in the 1940s. 

He learned his love of reading from his pop, who would come home from his job at the abattoir and read Oscar Wilde’s work over a cigar on the porch. 

From a young age Ephraim felt an ineffable pull toward monotheism and converted to Judaism, along with his wife, Cas, after the pair met as teenagers at the Wagga Wagga Royal Show.

Eventually he was drawn to his vocation — the sacred and quiet ritual of preparing bodies for burial. 

And he became the go-to man in Melbourne, where over his career he has buried more than 10,000 people.

Further information

Ferryman: The life and deathwork of Ephraim Finch is published by Wild Dingo Press.

Katia's first book, a memoir is called The Swift Dark Tide, published by Gazebo Books.

Find out more about the Conversations Live National Tour on the ABC website.

Conversations' Executive Producer is Nicola Harrison. This episode was produced by Alice Moldovan.

This episode of Conversations touches on death, grief, mourning, burial, Judaism, Jewish, chevra kadisha, Ephraim Finch, Melbourne, Orthodox Judaism, conversion, Jewish conversion, Wagga Wagga, Herman Wouk, deathwork, funerals, epic life stories, origin stories, loss, reflection and biography.