True Story Book Club: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (320 pages)
For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science’s boldest strides
and weirdest undertakings. 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. For
every new surgical procedure, from heart transplants to gender confirmation surgery, cadavers have helped make history
in their quiet way. “Delightful—though never disrespectful” (Les Simpson, Time Out New York), Stiff investigates the
strange lives of our bodies postmortem and answers the question: What should we do after we die?
