In her droll, inimitable voice, Roach tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them. The last of five selections for our summer 2017 study of Young Adult books, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach is a deep exploration of all the ways human cadavers are dealt with in the world. In this fascinating, ennobling account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries from the anatomy labs and human-sourced pharmacies of medieval and nineteenth-century Europe to a human decay research facility in Tennessee, to a plastic surgery practice lab, to a Scandinavian funeral directors' conference on human composting. For every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender reassignment surgery, cadavers have been there alongside surgeons, making history in their quiet way. They've tested France's first guillotines, ridden the NASA Space Shuttle, been crucified in a Parisian laboratory to test the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, and helped solve the mystery of TWA Flight 800. An oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem.įor two thousand years, cadavers (some willingly, some unwittingly) have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings.
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