The Bone Woman
The Bone Woman
"Chilling but mesmerizing...Koff's account is neither histrionic nor preachy; it's clear-eyed, hard-headed, and straightforward.... This book works so well, is so vivid and so moving, because Koff surrounds the dead bodies with living stories." - BookPage
Awards, Honors and Commendations
Prix Livre et Droits de L'Homme (Human Rights Book Prize) 2005
Prix Livre et Droits de L'Homme (Human Rights Book Prize) 2005
Prix Livre et Droits de L'Homme (Human Rights Book Prize) 2005
De la Ville de Nancy, France, presented by Jorge Semprun
Book of the Year, 2004
Prix Livre et Droits de L'Homme (Human Rights Book Prize) 2005
Prix Livre et Droits de L'Homme (Human Rights Book Prize) 2005
Jenny Crwys-Williams, Radio 702, South Africa
A Best of 2004
Prix Livre et Droits de L'Homme (Human Rights Book Prize) 2005
A Top 20 Science Book of 2004
Maureen Corrigan, National Public Radio
A Top 20 Science Book of 2004
An International Book of the Year 2004
A Top 20 Science Book of 2004
Discover Magazine
A Best of 2004
An International Book of the Year 2004
An International Book of the Year 2004
Booktrust
An International Book of the Year 2004
An International Book of the Year 2004
An International Book of the Year 2004
Clive James in The Times Literary Supplement, 3 December
A Book of the Year, 2004
Best Original Subject, Non-fiction, 2004
Best Original Subject, Non-fiction, 2004
Andrea Levy in The Guardian
Best Original Subject, Non-fiction, 2004
Best Original Subject, Non-fiction, 2004
Best Original Subject, Non-fiction, 2004
Black Issues Book Review
Editor's Pick
Best Original Subject, Non-fiction, 2004
Non-fiction Book of the Year, 2004
Foreign Policy Association
Non-fiction Book of the Year, 2004
Non-fiction Book of the Year, 2004
Non-fiction Book of the Year, 2004
Jenny Crwys-Williams, Radio 702, South Africa
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Non-fiction Book of the Year, 2004
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From the US publisher, Random House
In 1994, Rwanda was the scene of the first acts since World War II to be legally defined as genocide. Two years later, Clea Koff, a 23-year old forensic anthropologist, left the safe confines of a lab in Berkeley, California, to serve as one of sixteen scientists chosen by the United Nations to unearth the physical evidence of the Rwandan genocide. Over the next four years, Koff's grueling investigations took her across geography synonymous with some of the worst crimes of the twentieth century.
Published in 2004, The Bone Woman is Koff's unflinching, riveting account of her seven UN missions to Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo, and Rwanda, as she shares what she saw, how it affected her, who was prosecuted based on evidence she found, and what she learned about the world. Yet even as she recounts the hellish nature of her work and the heartbreak of the survivors, she imbues her story with purpose, humanity, and a sense of justice. A tale of science in service of human rights, The Bone Woman is, even more profoundly, a story of hope and enduring moral principles.
The Bone Woman - now published in ten languages and more than 14 countries - French translation republished by Éditions Héloïse d'Ormesson in 2023