RAG AND BONE
The impulse to preserve and revere the body parts of the holy deceased has been part of the human experience since the Buddha lost his baby teeth and John the Baptist lost his head.

With postmortem accounts of Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, and a crowd of other holy souls, Peter Manseau’s surprising and delightful RAG AND BONE tells the hidden histories of these bodies that have meant so much to so many. Along the way, we meet a California seeker drawn to a Jerusalem convent because of a nun’s disembodied hand, a French forensics expert who rides the metro with the rib from what may have been a saint, two young Syrian brothers who study English beside a hair from the Prophet’s beard, and discover many more true tales of the living and dubious lessons of the dead.

By examining these relics—the bits and pieces of long-dead saints found in most religious traditions—Manseau has written a tremendously moving book about life, the varieties of faith, and how both life and faith are sustained. The result of wide travel, the author’s own deep curiosity, and visits with those living who take care of these dead, RAG AND BONE stitches together a portrait of the world’s religions. And it delivers a respectful, witty, and fascinating look into the place where abstractions of faith meet the realities of physical objects, of rags and bones.

Rights Sold
World - Henry Holt