"Well written and hard to put down. For anyone with an interest in forensic science, this book is a must-read."--Nigel McCrery, author of Silent Witnesses: The Often Gruesome but Always Fascinating History of Forensic Science "This compilation is a fascinating read for the nonspecialist and will further serve as an inspirational set of recommended readings for the next generation of forensic scientists."--Tim D. White, coauthor of The Human Bone ManualDid Richard ...

“A compelling account of the zombi as an anthropological reality and evocative symbol of a state of dispossession, desperation, and death.”—Roger Luckhurst, author of Zombies: A Cultural History “An adventurer’s anthropological quest offering a novel description of the contemporary zombie.”—Sarah J. Lauro, author of The Transatlantic Zombie: Slavery, Rebellion, and Living Death “Displays an empathy for the cultural reality of the zombie in Haiti that delivers important in...

How devastating viruses, pandemics, and other natural catastrophes swept through the far-flung Roman Empire and helped to bring down one of the mightiest civilizations of the ancient worldHere is the monumental retelling of one of the most consequential chapters of human history: the fall of the Roman Empire. The Fate of Rome is the first book to examine the catastrophic role that climate change and infectious diseases played in the collapse of Rome’s powe...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • 20th Anniversary Edition, with a new foreword by the author • “[A] masterpiece . . . an astonishing book that will leave you questioning your own life and political views.”—USA Today“If any one person can be given credit for transforming the medical establishment’s thinking about health care for the destitute, it is Paul Farmer. . . . [Mountains Beyond Mountains] inspires, discomforts, ...

Tales of twenty-eight famous operations, from Louis XIV to Einstein, JFK, and Houdini, with "insight into the thought process and philosophy of those who cut to heal" ( Booklist).From the story of the desperate man from seventeenth-century Amsterdam who grimly cut a stone out of his own bladder to Bob Marley's deadly toe, Under the Knife offers a wealth of fascinating and unforgettable insights into medicine and history via the operating room.

A scientific investigation and personal adventure story about zombis and the voudoun culture of Haiti by a Harvard scientist.In April 1982, ethnobotanist Wade Davis arrived in Haiti to investigate two documented cases of zombis—people who had reappeared in Haitian society years after they had been officially declared dead and had been buried. Drawn into a netherworld of rituals and celebrations, Davis penetrated the vodoun mystique deeply enough to place zombificat...

“Excellent. . . . Tucker’s chronicle of the world of 17th-century science in London and Paris is fascinating.”—The EconomistIn December 1667, maverick physician Jean Denis transfused calf’s blood into one of Paris’s most notorious madmen. Days later, the madman was dead and Denis was framed for murder. A riveting exposé of the fierce debates, deadly politics, and cutthroat rivalries behind the first transfusion experiments, Blood Work takes us from dissection room...

A fascinating work of detective history, The Black Death traces the causes and far-reaching consequences of this infamous outbreak of plague that spread across the continent of Europe from 1347 to 1351. Drawing on sources as diverse as monastic manuscripts and dendrochronological studies (which measure growth rings in trees), historian Robert S. Gottfried demonstrates how a bacillus transmitted by rat fleas brought on an ecological reign of terror -- killing one European in three,...

Deeply rooted in Haiti’s culture and held sacred by millions, Haitian Vodou is a joyous and profound ancestral practice descended from the Vodu priesthood of West Africa. This little-understood belief system is among the truest religions of the Americas—yet its essence has remained a mystery to outsiders.Written by a practitioner of the highest initiatory rank, Haitian Vodou is the only book that offers a respectful, first-hand overview of the centuries-old indigenous trad...

An “absolutely magnificent” book (The New Republic)—the fruit of almost two decades of study—that traces the changes in Western attitudes toward death and dying from the earliest Christian times to the present day.A truly landmark study, The Hour of Our Death reveals a pattern of gradually developing evolutionary stages in our perceptions of life in relation to death, each stage representing a virtual redefinition of human nature.Starting ...

"Comic and staggeringly tragic, often both in a single sentence . . . A grittier, Eastern European, more grown-up The Fault in Our Stars." —Eowyn Ivey, New York Times–bestselling authorSeventeen-year-old Ivan Isaenko is a life-long resident of the Mazyr Hospital for Gravely Ill Children in Belarus. Born deformed yet mentally keen with a frighteningly sharp wit, strong intellect, and a voracious appetite for books, Ivan is forced to interact with th...

On January 12, 2010, novelist Dany Laferrière had just ordered dinner at a Port-au-Prince restaurant with a friend when the earthquake struck. He survived; some three hundred thousand others did not. The quake caused widespread destruction and left over one million homeless.This moving and revelatory book is an eyewitness account of the quake and its aftermath. In a series of vignettes, Laferrière reveals the shock, rage, and grief experienced by those around him, the acts of heroi...