Author(s): Mary Roach

Non-Fiction

Whether buried, burnt, snatched, dissected or decomposed, some people have been more useful dead than alive. From testing the efficiency of the guillotine, experiments to determine the weight of the soul, calibrating crash test dummies, to advances in modern medicine, the deceased body has been a silent partner to many of the major advances in the understanding of ourselves. Stiff tells a story of the last 2000 years in which human cadavers have been at the forefront of scientific exploration: from Ancient Egypt to Mediaeval pharmacies and, even, the contemporary labs that have successfully performed a head transplant on a monkey. Combining riveting story telling with science, history and reportage, Stiff is one of the funniest, most intriguing books you will ever read.