Stiff

Everything you ever wanted to know about what happens to bodies after they die. In this exploration into the macabre, Mary Roach tells a story that reaches from medieval pharmacies, stories of 19th century body snatching, to the present-day Body Farms, and conferences on human composting.

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What happens to your body after you have died?

Fertilizer? Crash Test Dummy? Human Dumpling? Ballistics Practise?

Life after death is not as simple as it looks. Mary Roach's Stiff lifts the lid off what happens to our bodies once we have died. Bold, original and with a delightful eye for detail, Roach tells us everything we wanted to know about this new frontier in medical science.

Interweaving present-day explorations with a history of past attempts to study what it means to be human Stiff is a deliciously dark investigations for readers of popular science as well as fans of the macabre.

'Spry, common, sharp-witted survey brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "Life after death"' Sunday Times

'One of the funniest and most unusual books of the year' Entertainment Weekly

'Every chapter packed with more arresting details elegantly humourously expressed than one can hope for' Sunday Telegraph