Still Life with Bones - by Alexa Hagerty (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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. '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 loss and mourning.' Over the course of Guatemala's thirty-year armed conflict-the longest ever in Central America-over 200,000 people were killed. During Argentina's military dictatorship in the seventies, over 30,000 people were disappeared. Today, forensic anthropologists in each country are gathering evidence to prove atrocities and seek justice. But these teams do more than just study skeletons-they work to repair families and countries torn apart by violence. In Still Life with Bones, anthropologist Alexa Hagerty learns to see the dead body with a forensic eye. She examines bones for evidence of torture and fatal wounds-hands bound by rope, cuts from machetes-but also for signs of a life lived: to articulate how life shapes us down to the bone. A weaver is recognized from the tiny bones of the toes, molded by years of kneeling before a loom; a girl is identified alongside her pet dog. In the tenderness of understanding these bones, Hagerty discovers how exhumation serves as a ritual in the naming and placement of the dead, and connects ancestors with future generations. She shows us how this work can bring meaning to families dealing with unimaginable loss, and how its symbolic force can also extend to entire societies in the aftermath of state terror and genocide. Encountering the dead has the power to transform us, making us consider each other, our lives, and the world differently. Weaving together powerful stories about investigative breakthroughs, grieving families, histories of violence, and her own forensic coming of age, Hagerty crafts a moving portrait of the living and the dead"--

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"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, profound and very readable . . . There's a spiritual element as [Hagerty] speaks of learning to 'read' the bones and the ghosts that result."--Financial Times

"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

"This book knocked me flat. . . . This kind of book is perfect for people who have morbid interests but want to use them for good. Books like this help readers gain new perspectives, learn important history, and connect to our shared human nature that finds death-related rituals important."--Book Riot

"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)

About the Author

Alexa Hagerty is an anthropologist researching science, technology, and human rights. She holds a PhD from Stanford University and is an associate fellow at the University of Cambridge. Her research has received honors and funding from the National Science Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the American Ethnological Society, among other institutions. She has written for the Los Angeles Review of Books, Wired, Social Anthropology, and Palais de Tokyo.