Editorial Review:

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 twenty-three-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.
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.

Customer Reviews:

Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0

Interesting, Informative Read:

Clea Koff is a forensic anthropologist who worked with teams in Rwanda, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo uncovering mass graves, determining individual identities and cause of death. This books seems to be a journal that was eventually turned into a book (the writing is informal). Koff explains how she was inspired to go into this field. She explains the process of uncovering bodies and what she learns about how to do forensic anthropology. She talks about her teammates, the good and the bad (and does a fair... more info

Great read:

I'm a bio-anthro undergraduate and although I wouldn't consider it as a career, I am very interested in forensic anthropology. This book was amazing and really useful. It gives you a window into the life of a forensic anthropologist and the impact that it can have on the world. Clea writes very clearly and with purpose, as she explains what attracted her to forensics and how she wanted to give voices to the dead. She describes her trips to Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo, the beautiful landscapes, the... more info

The Bone Supremacist:

Koff's prose is fine and, at times, borders on the poetic - her descriptions of her work are well written and easily read. But that's the problem - perhaps the phrase is ubiquitous self-indulgence?
In the first few pages of her work she claims that her job is to make bones talk, and that she is restoring life to these people who have lost theirs. But instead of telling us what these bones have "said," she spends 250 pages telling us how she got them to say it.
Koff is a wonderful, articulate, and... more info

An OK Read:

This book was interesting but not one that I would recommend to a friend. If you want to learn more about forensic anthropology, this is something you may enjoy. If you want to learn more about the raw emotions that were involved with these situations, this is not the book for you. The author spends more time talking about "the break down of the team" vs the grieving mothers who protest the search for their loved ones, familiy members searching through clothes to identify bodies, etc.
She prides... more info

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