Still Life with Bones : Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains by Alexa Hagerty (2023, Hardcover) online kaufen

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Product Identifiers

PublisherCrown Publishing Group, T.H.E.

ISBN-100593443136

ISBN-139780593443132

eBay Product ID (ePID)13057241323

Product Key Features

Book TitleStill Life with Bones : Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains

Number of Pages320 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2023

TopicArchaeology, Genocide & War Crimes, Forensic Science, Anthropology / Physical, Latin America / South America, Latin America / General, International

GenreLaw, Political Science, Social Science, History

AuthorAlexa Hagerty

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.1 in

Item Weight15.2 Oz

Item Length8.5 in

Item Width5.8 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2022-039668

Reviews"In this unforgettable debut, Alexa Hagerty reveals the intimacy and sacredness of forensics, revealing it as a task that, despite its Sisyphean nature, is ever-more vital to the preservation of memory, story, and ritual--a slow, intricate counterweight to the obliterating power of modern violence. Still Life with Bones is at once horrifying and impossibly hopeful." --Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River "Still Life with Bones is a well-researched, electrifying read, full of profound personal insight and intellectual generosity. Bones tell chilling stories about our past, but they preserve, too, the potency of alternative outcomes. Alexa Hagerty unlocks this possibility with wisdom and compassion." --Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Liliana's Invincible Summer " Still Life with Bones will hold readers rapt. Hagerty takes us deeply inside the experience of an anthropologist learning to dispassionately decode scientific clues while never forgetting that in each bone there is a brutally murdered person who still cries....A startling and profound meditation on death and resilience." --T. M. Luhrmann, author of How God Becomes Real "Touching but achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist...When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved. The text is unflinching, but then the crimes and the victims deserve nothing less. I guarantee that this will make you think long and hard about cruelty and human rights and the dedication and humanity of the forensic scientist." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains "With poetic prose, Hagerty takes us to a liminal space between life and death, where forensic anthropologists descend into darkness in search of light. In this remarkable book, she ascends to shine a light that only an anthropologist could, bathing the bones of the disappeared in their stories and in history, politics, and family testimony. Illuminated too are the forensic scientists and Hagerty herself. This is a must-read." --Clea Koff, author of The Bone Woman "With great sensitivity and nuance, Hagerty gives us a compelling first-person ethnographic window into the realities, rationalities, and complexities of forensic work in Latin America. This beautifully written book is a must read for those seeking to understand not just the history of state-sponsored murder in Guatemala and Argentina, but also the important relationship between the painstaking forensic science needed to identify bodies and the interrelated emotional worlds of victim's families and anthropologists seeking justice." --Jason De León, Director of the Undocumented Migration Project and the Colibri Center for Human Rights, author of The Land of Open Graves, "In this unforgettable debut, Alexa Hagerty uncovers the intimacy and sacredness of forensics, revealing it as a task that, despite its Sisyphean nature, is ever more vital to the preservation of memory, story, and ritual--a slow, intricate counterweight to the obliterating power of modern violence. Still Life with Bones is at once horrifying and impossibly hopeful." --Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River "Meticulous, luminous, utterly brilliant . . . The prose is as delicate and sharp as a rib cage, but the book's beating heart is Hagerty's wise and compassionate voice, a welcome guide through the atrocities she documents. Equally powerful about the horrors we do to one another and the care we are capable of, Still Life with Bones is essential reading as a human." --Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body "Hagerty, a Chekhovian angel of science and poetry, has written an intimate, moving, mesmerizing account. The world is what it is, its global sorrows ever mounting, but this treasure of a book somehow makes it more bearable." --Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize "An electrifying read, full of profound personal insight and intellectual generosity . . . Bones tell chilling stories about our past, but they preserve, too, the potency of alternative outcomes. Hagerty unlocks this possibility with wisdom and compassion." --Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Liliana's Invincible Summer "Touching and achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist . . . When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains "A startling and profound meditation on death and resilience, Still Life with Bones will hold readers rapt." --T. M. Luhrmann, author of How God Becomes Real "With poetic prose, Hagerty takes us to a liminal space between life and death, where forensic anthropologists descend into darkness in search of light. This remarkable book is a must-read." --Clea Koff, author of The Bone Woman "Soulful but unsentimental. . . . A powerful meditation on life, death, and sorting out what can be saved of death in life." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Searing. . . . Hagerty never loses sight of the humanity of the dead and the pain felt by the survivors, nimbly weaving together political history and personal narratives to illuminate the difficult process of accounting for atrocities. Intense and emotional, this is a vital rumination on political violence." -- Publishers Weekly, "In this unforgettable debut, Alexa Hagerty uncovers the intimacy and sacredness of forensics, revealing it as a task that, despite its Sisyphean nature, is ever more vital to the preservation of memory, story, and ritual--a slow, intricate counterweight to the obliterating power of modern violence. Still Life with Bones is at once horrifying and impossibly hopeful." --Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River "Meticulous, luminous, utterly brilliant . . . The prose is as delicate and sharp as a rib cage, but the book's beating heart is Hagerty's wise and compassionate voice, a welcome guide through the atrocities she documents. Equally powerful about the horrors we do to one another and the care we are capable of, Still Life with Bones is essential reading as a human." --Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body "Hagerty, a Chekhovian angel of science and poetry, has written an intimate, moving, mesmerizing account. The world is what it is, its global sorrows ever mounting, but this treasure of a book somehow makes it more bearable." --Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize "An electrifying read, full of profound personal insight and intellectual generosity . . . Bones tell chilling stories about our past, but they preserve, too, the potency of alternative outcomes. Hagerty unlocks this possibility with wisdom and compassion." --Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Liliana's Invincible Summer "Touching and achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist . . . When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains "A startling and profound meditation on death and resilience, Still Life with Bones will hold readers rapt." --T. M. Luhrmann, author of How God Becomes Real "With poetic prose, Hagerty takes us to a liminal space between life and death, where forensic anthropologists descend into darkness in search of light. This remarkable book is a must-read." --Clea Koff, author of The Bone Woman "With great sensitivity and nuance, Hagerty gives us a compelling first-person ethnographic window into the realities, rationalities, and complexities of forensic work in Latin America." --Jason De León, Director of the Undocumented Migration Project and the Colibri Center for Human Rights, author of The Land of Open Graves "Soulful but unsentimental. . . . A powerful meditation on life, death, and sorting out what can be saved of death in life." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Readers of history, science, and true crime will find Hagerty's first book impactful and compelling. Her well-researched and accessible narrative ensures that the history and legacy of violence in Guatemala and Argentina will not be buried." -- Booklist "Searing . . . Intense and emotional, this is a vital rumination on political violence." -- Publishers Weekly, "Haunted and fascinating . . . lyrical . . . The stories of these excavators of the past are told compellingly in Still Life with Bones ." -- The New York Times Book Review "In this meditative ethnography, a social anthropologist . . . delicately explores the art, the science, and the sacredness of exhumation in the aftermath of genocide. . . . Throughout the book, just as in forensics, 'the ritual and the analytical buzz in electric proximity.'" -- The New Yorker "Moving and beautiful, harrowing and horrifying . . . A single sentence can stop you in your tracks. . . . Still Life with Bones is stark and upsetting, but also deeply humane and shot through with a hard-won wisdom. You will see forensics in a new light." -- New Scientist "Chilling and vital. . . . sensitive and thought-provoking." -- The Times "Visceral . . . a timely reminder of the legacies of war and genocide . . . a lyrical and powerful meditation on the meaning of justice, grief and ritual." -- The Conversation "Powerful and harrowing . . . told with clarity, compassion and utmost respect for those cruelly killed and for those who grieve for them." -- The Irish Times "Haunting . . . [ Still Life with Bones ] will stay with you long after the final world." -- The Sunday Post (UK) "Philosophical, poetic, never mawkish, Hagerty's book has the makings of a classic. . . . [Hagerty] is an exceptional writer, eloquently exploring both the practicalities and the symbolism of her work, sidestepping clunky metaphors while grave while finding startling new ones." -- The Times Literary Supplement " Still Life with Bones is at once horrifying and impossibly hopeful." --Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River "Meticulous, luminous, utterly brilliant . . . The prose is as delicate and sharp as a rib cage, but the book's beating heart is Hagerty's wise and compassionate voice, a welcome guide through the atrocities she documents." --Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body "Hagerty, a Chekhovian angel of science and poetry, has written an intimate, moving, mesmerizing account. The world is what it is, its global sorrows ever mounting, but this treasure of a book somehow makes it more bearable." --Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize "An electrifying read, full of profound personal insight and intellectual generosity . . . Bones tell chilling stories about our past, but they preserve, too, the potency of alternative outcomes. Hagerty unlocks this possibility with wisdom and compassion." --Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Liliana's Invincible Summer "Touching and achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist . . . When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains "Soulful but unsentimental. . . . A powerful meditation on life, death, and sorting out what can be saved of death in life." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Every beautifully written page of this extraordinary book affirms the individuality of each victim, and honors the living who serve them and their survivors." -- BookPage (starred review), "Haunted and fascinating . . . lyrical . . . The stories of these excavators of the past are told compellingly in Still Life with Bones ." -- The New York Times Book Review "Moving and beautiful, harrowing and horrifying . . . A single sentence can stop you in your tracks. . . . Still Life with Bones is stark and upsetting, but also deeply humane and shot through with a hard-won wisdom. You will see forensics in a new light." -- New Scientist "Chilling and vital. . . . sensitive and thought-provoking." -- The Times "Visceral . . . a timely reminder of the legacies of war and genocide . . . a lyrical and powerful meditation on the meaning of justice, grief and ritual." -- The Conversation "Powerful and harrowing . . . told with clarity, compassion and utmost respect for those cruelly killed and for those who grieve for them." -- The Irish Times "Haunting . . . [ Still Life with Bones ] will stay with you long after the final world." -- The Sunday Post (UK) " Still Life with Bones is at once horrifying and impossibly hopeful." --Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River "Meticulous, luminous, utterly brilliant . . . The prose is as delicate and sharp as a rib cage, but the book's beating heart is Hagerty's wise and compassionate voice, a welcome guide through the atrocities she documents." --Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body "Hagerty, a Chekhovian angel of science and poetry, has written an intimate, moving, mesmerizing account. The world is what it is, its global sorrows ever mounting, but this treasure of a book somehow makes it more bearable." --Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize "An electrifying read, full of profound personal insight and intellectual generosity . . . Bones tell chilling stories about our past, but they preserve, too, the potency of alternative outcomes. Hagerty unlocks this possibility with wisdom and compassion." --Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Liliana's Invincible Summer "Touching and achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist . . . When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains "With poetic prose, Hagerty takes us to a liminal space between life and death, where forensic anthropologists descend into darkness in search of light. This remarkable book is a must-read." --Clea Koff, author of The Bone Woman "Soulful but unsentimental. . . . A powerful meditation on life, death, and sorting out what can be saved of death in life." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Every beautifully written page of this extraordinary book affirms the individuality of each victim, and honors the living who serve them and their survivors." -- BookPage (starred review) "Searing . . . Intense and emotional, this is a vital rumination on political violence." -- Publishers Weekly, "In this unforgettable debut, Alexa Hagerty reveals the intimacy and sacredness of forensics, revealing it as a task that, despite its Sisyphean nature, is evermore vital to preservation of memory, story, and ritual--a slow, intricate counterweight to the obliterating power of modern violence. Still Life with Bones is at once horrifying and impossibly hopeful." --Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River " Still Life with Bones will hold readers rapt. Hagerty takes us deeply inside the experience of an anthropologist learning to dispassionately decode scientific clues while never forgetting that in each bone there is a brutally murdered person who still cries. A startling and profound meditation on death and resilience." --T.M. Luhrmann, author of How God Becomes Real "Touching but achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist...When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved. The text is unflinching, but then the crimes and the victims deserve nothing less. I guarantee that this will make you think long and hard about cruelty and human rights and the dedication and humanity of the forensic scientist." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains, "Absorbing. . . . Still Life with Bones is multifaceted and elegiac: a memoir of a formative period in Hagerty's life as a social scientist, a tribute to the people she met along the way, and a warning against the belief that the worst crimes of authoritarianism have been relegated to the past." -- The New York Times "Chilling and vital. . . . sensitive and thought-provoking." -- The Times " Still Life with Bones is at once horrifying and impossibly hopeful." --Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River "Meticulous, luminous, utterly brilliant . . . The prose is as delicate and sharp as a rib cage, but the book's beating heart is Hagerty's wise and compassionate voice, a welcome guide through the atrocities she documents." --Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body "Hagerty, a Chekhovian angel of science and poetry, has written an intimate, moving, mesmerizing account. The world is what it is, its global sorrows ever mounting, but this treasure of a book somehow makes it more bearable." --Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize "An electrifying read, full of profound personal insight and intellectual generosity . . . Bones tell chilling stories about our past, but they preserve, too, the potency of alternative outcomes. Hagerty unlocks this possibility with wisdom and compassion." --Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Liliana's Invincible Summer "Touching and achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist . . . When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains "A startling and profound meditation on death and resilience, Still Life with Bones will hold readers rapt." --T. M. Luhrmann, author of How God Becomes Real "With poetic prose, Hagerty takes us to a liminal space between life and death, where forensic anthropologists descend into darkness in search of light. This remarkable book is a must-read." --Clea Koff, author of The Bone Woman "With great sensitivity and nuance, Hagerty gives us a compelling first-person ethnographic window into the realities, rationalities, and complexities of forensic work in Latin America." --Jason De León, Director of the Undocumented Migration Project and the Colibri Center for Human Rights, author of The Land of Open Graves "Soulful but unsentimental. . . . A powerful meditation on life, death, and sorting out what can be saved of death in life." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Every beautifully written page of this extraordinary book affirms the individuality of each victim, and honors the living who serve them and their survivors." -- BookPage (starred review) "Searing . . . Intense and emotional, this is a vital rumination on political violence." -- Publishers Weekly, "In this unforgettable debut, Alexa Hagerty uncovers the intimacy and sacredness of forensics, revealing it as a task that, despite its Sisyphean nature, is ever more vital to the preservation of memory, story, and ritual--a slow, intricate counterweight to the obliterating power of modern violence. Still Life with Bones is at once horrifying and impossibly hopeful." --Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River "Meticulous, luminous, utterly brilliant . . . The prose is as delicate and sharp as a rib cage, but the book's beating heart is Hagerty's wise and compassionate voice, a welcome guide through the atrocities she documents. Equally powerful about the horrors we do to one another and the care we are capable of, Still Life with Bones is essential reading as a human." --Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body "Hagerty, a Chekhovian angel of science and poetry, has written an intimate, moving, mesmerizing account. The world is what it is, its global sorrows ever mounting, but this treasure of a book somehow makes it more bearable." --Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize "An electrifying read, full of profound personal insight and intellectual generosity . . . Bones tell chilling stories about our past, but they preserve, too, the potency of alternative outcomes. Hagerty unlocks this possibility with wisdom and compassion." --Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Liliana's Invincible Summer "Touching and achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist . . . When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains "A startling and profound meditation on death and resilience, Still Life with Bones will hold readers rapt." --T. M. Luhrmann, author of How God Becomes Real "With poetic prose, Hagerty takes us to a liminal space between life and death, where forensic anthropologists descend into darkness in search of light. This remarkable book is a must-read." --Clea Koff, author of The Bone Woman "With great sensitivity and nuance, Hagerty gives us a compelling first-person ethnographic window into the realities, rationalities, and complexities of forensic work in Latin America." --Jason De León, Director of the Undocumented Migration Project and the Colibri Center for Human Rights, author of The Land of Open Graves "Soulful but unsentimental. . . . A powerful meditation on life, death, and sorting out what can be saved of death in life." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Readers of history, science, and true crime will find Hagerty's first book impactful and compelling. Her well researched and accessible narrative ensures that the history and legacy of violence in Guatemala and Argentina will not be buried." -- Booklist "Searing . . . Intense and emotional, this is a vital rumination on political violence." -- Publishers Weekly, "Touching, but achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist. When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved. The text is unflinching, but then the crimes and the victims deserve nothing less. I guarantee this will make you think long and hard about cruelty and human rights and the dedication and humanity of the forensic scientist." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains, "Haunted and fascinating . . . lyrical . . . The stories of these excavators of the past are told compellingly in Still Life with Bones ." -- The New York Times Book Review "Moving and beautiful, harrowing and horrifying . . . A single sentence can stop you in your tracks. . . . Still Life with Bones is stark and upsetting, but also deeply humane and shot through with a hard-won wisdom. You will see forensics in a new light." -- New Scientist "Absorbing. . . . Still Life with Bones is multifaceted and elegiac: a memoir of a formative period in Hagerty's life as a social scientist, a tribute to the people she met along the way, and a warning against the belief that the worst crimes of authoritarianism have been relegated to the past." -- The New York Times "Chilling and vital. . . . sensitive and thought-provoking." -- The Times " Still Life with Bones is at once horrifying and impossibly hopeful." --Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River "Meticulous, luminous, utterly brilliant . . . The prose is as delicate and sharp as a rib cage, but the book's beating heart is Hagerty's wise and compassionate voice, a welcome guide through the atrocities she documents." --Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body "Hagerty, a Chekhovian angel of science and poetry, has written an intimate, moving, mesmerizing account. The world is what it is, its global sorrows ever mounting, but this treasure of a book somehow makes it more bearable." --Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize "An electrifying read, full of profound personal insight and intellectual generosity . . . Bones tell chilling stories about our past, but they preserve, too, the potency of alternative outcomes. Hagerty unlocks this possibility with wisdom and compassion." --Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Liliana's Invincible Summer "Touching and achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist . . . When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains "With poetic prose, Hagerty takes us to a liminal space between life and death, where forensic anthropologists descend into darkness in search of light. This remarkable book is a must-read." --Clea Koff, author of The Bone Woman "Soulful but unsentimental. . . . A powerful meditation on life, death, and sorting out what can be saved of death in life." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Every beautifully written page of this extraordinary book affirms the individuality of each victim, and honors the living who serve them and their survivors." -- BookPage (starred review) "Searing . . . Intense and emotional, this is a vital rumination on political violence." -- Publishers Weekly, "Haunted and fascinating. . . . Lyrical. . . . The stories of these excavators of the past are told compellingly in Still Life With Bones ." -- The New York Times Book Review "Moving and beautiful, harrowing and horrifying. . . . A single sentence can stop you in your tracks. . . . Stark and upsetting, but also deeply humane and shot through with a hard-won wisdom. You will see forensics in a new light." -- New Scientist "Absorbing. . . . Still Life with Bones is multifaceted and elegiac: a memoir of a formative period in Hagerty's life as a social scientist, a tribute to the people she met along the way, and a warning against the belief that the worst crimes of authoritarianism have been relegated to the past." -- The New York Times "Chilling and vital. . . . sensitive and thought-provoking." -- The Times " Still Life with Bones is at once horrifying and impossibly hopeful." --Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River "Meticulous, luminous, utterly brilliant . . . The prose is as delicate and sharp as a rib cage, but the book's beating heart is Hagerty's wise and compassionate voice, a welcome guide through the atrocities she documents." --Alex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of The Fact of a Body "Hagerty, a Chekhovian angel of science and poetry, has written an intimate, moving, mesmerizing account. The world is what it is, its global sorrows ever mounting, but this treasure of a book somehow makes it more bearable." --Francisco Goldman, author of Monkey Boy, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize "An electrifying read, full of profound personal insight and intellectual generosity . . . Bones tell chilling stories about our past, but they preserve, too, the potency of alternative outcomes. Hagerty unlocks this possibility with wisdom and compassion." --Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Liliana's Invincible Summer "Touching and achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist . . . When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains "With poetic prose, Hagerty takes us to a liminal space between life and death, where forensic anthropologists descend into darkness in search of light. This remarkable book is a must-read." --Clea Koff, author of The Bone Woman "Soulful but unsentimental. . . . A powerful meditation on life, death, and sorting out what can be saved of death in life." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Every beautifully written page of this extraordinary book affirms the individuality of each victim, and honors the living who serve them and their survivors." -- BookPage (starred review) "Searing . . . Intense and emotional, this is a vital rumination on political violence." -- Publishers Weekly, "In this unforgettable debut, Alexa Hagerty reveals the intimacy and sacredness of forensics, revealing it as a task that, despite its Sisyphean nature, is ever-more vital to the preservation of memory, story, and ritual--a slow, intricate counterweight to the obliterating power of modern violence. Still Life with Bones is at once horrifying and impossibly hopeful." --Francisco Cantú, New York Times bestselling author of The Line Becomes a River " Still Life with Bones is a well-researched, electrifying read, full of profound personal insight and intellectual generosity. Bones tell chilling stories about our past, but they preserve, too, the potency of alternative outcomes. Alexa Hagerty unlocks this possibility with wisdom and compassion." --Cristina Rivera Garza, author of Liliana's Invincible Summer " Still Life with Bones will hold readers rapt. Hagerty takes us deeply inside the experience of an anthropologist learning to dispassionately decode scientific clues while never forgetting that in each bone there is a brutally murdered person who still cries....A startling and profound meditation on death and resilience." --T. M. Luhrmann, author of How God Becomes Real "Touching but achingly honest--a most amazing account of training as a forensic anthropologist...When Hagerty talks about 'lives being violently made into bones,' I defy you not to be moved. The text is unflinching, but then the crimes and the victims deserve nothing less. I guarantee that this will make you think long and hard about cruelty and human rights and the dedication and humanity of the forensic scientist." --Sue Black, author of All That Remains "With poetic prose, Hagerty takes us to a liminal space between life and death, where forensic anthropologists descend into darkness in search of light. In this remarkable book, she ascends to shine a light that only an anthropologist could, bathing the bones of the disappeared in their stories and in history, politics, and family testimony. Illuminated too are the forensic scientists and Hagerty herself. This is a must-read." --Clea Koff, author of The Bone Woman "With great sensitivity and nuance, Hagerty gives us a compelling first-person ethnographic window into the realities, rationalities, and complexities of forensic work in Latin America. This beautifully written book is a must-read for those seeking to understand not just the history of state-sponsored murder in Guatemala and Argentina but also the important relationship between the painstaking forensic science needed to identify bodies and the interrelated emotional worlds of victim's families and anthropologists seeking justice." --Jason De León, director of the Undocumented Migration Project and the Colibrí Center for Human Rights, and author of The Land of Open Graves

Dewey Edition23

Dewey Decimal363.25951098

SynopsisNew York Times Book Review Editors ' Choice * An anthropologist working with forensic teams and victims' families to investigate crimes against humanity in Latin America explores what science can tell us about the lives of the dead in this haunting account of grief, the power of ritual, and a quest for justice. "Absorbing . . . multifaceted and elegiac . . . Still Life with Bones captures the ethos that drives the search--often tireless and against the odds--for truth."-- The New York Times WINNER OF THE JUAN E. MÉNDEZ BOOK AWARD * A NEW YORKER AND BOOKPAGE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "Exhumation can divide brothers and restore fathers, open old wounds and open the possibility of regeneration--of building something new with the 'pile of broken mirrors' that is memory, loss, and mourning." Throughout Guatemala's thirty-six-year armed conflict, state forces killed more than two hundred thousand people. Argentina's military dictatorship disappeared up to thirty thousand people. In the wake of genocidal violence, families of the missing searched for the truth. Young scientists joined their fight against impunity. Gathering evidence in the face of intimidation and death threats, they pioneered the field of forensic exhumation for human rights. In Still Life with Bones, anthropologist Alexa Hagerty learns to see the dead body with a forensic eye. She examines bones for marks of torture and fatal wounds--hands bound by rope, machete cuts--and also for signs of identity: how life shapes us down to the bone. A weaver is recognized from the tiny bones of the toes, molded by kneeling before a loom; a girl is identified alongside her pet dog. In the tenderness of understanding these bones, forensics not only offers proof of mass atrocity but also tells the story of each life lost. Working with forensic teams at mass grave sites and in labs, Hagerty discovers how bones bear witness to crimes against humanity and how exhumation can bring families meaning after unimaginable loss. She also comes to see how cutting-edge science can act as ritual--a way of caring for the dead with symbolic force that can repair societies torn apart by violence. Weaving together powerful stories about investigative breakthroughs, histories of violence and resistance, and her own forensic coming-of-age, Hagerty crafts a moving portrait of the living and the dead., New York Times Book Review Editors ' Choice - An anthropologist working with forensic teams and victims' families to investigate crimes against humanity in Latin America explores what science can tell us about the lives of the dead in this haunting account of grief, the power of ritual, and a quest for justice. "Absorbing . . . multifaceted and elegiac . . . Still Life with Bones captures the ethos that drives the search--often tireless and against the odds--for truth."-- The New York Times WINNER OF THE JUAN E. MÉNDEZ BOOK AWARD - A NEW YORKER AND BOOKPAGE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR "Exhumation can divide brothers and restore fathers, open old wounds and open the possibility of regeneration--of building something new with the 'pile of broken mirrors' that is memory, loss, and mourning." Throughout Guatemala's thirty-six-year armed conflict, state forces killed more than two hundred thousand people. Argentina's military dictatorship disappeared up to thirty thousand people. In the wake of genocidal violence, families of the missing searched for the truth. Young scientists joined their fight against impunity. Gathering evidence in the face of intimidation and death threats, they pioneered the field of forensic exhumation for human rights. In Still Life with Bones, anthropologist Alexa Hagerty learns to see the dead body with a forensic eye. She examines bones for marks of torture and fatal wounds--hands bound by rope, machete cuts--and also for signs of identity: how life shapes us down to the bone. A weaver is recognized from the tiny bones of the toes, molded by kneeling before a loom; a girl is identified alongside her pet dog. In the tenderness of understanding these bones, forensics not only offers proof of mass atrocity but also tells the story of each life lost. Working with forensic teams at mass grave sites and in labs, Hagerty discovers how bones bear witness to crimes against humanity and how exhumation can bring families meaning after unimaginable loss. She also comes to see how cutting-edge science can act as ritual--a way of caring for the dead with symbolic force that can repair societies torn apart by violence. Weaving together powerful stories about investigative breakthroughs, histories of violence and resistance, and her own forensic coming-of-age, Hagerty crafts a moving portrait of the living and the dead.

LC Classification NumberGN69.8.H33 2023