The Unclaimed

Reviews

“A work of grace . . . Both cleareyed and disturbing, yet pulsing with empathy.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Trust me that you’ll be captivated by this book about death. The Unclaimed tells remarkably vivid, intimate stories about four people in Los Angeles whose bodies went unclaimed after they died. . . . This lyrical and moving book raises profound questions about what we owe our family, our neighbors, and our fellow citizens.”—NPR

“A deeply compelling, utterly original account of all those whose bodies lie unclaimed in a Los Angeles morgue . . . [The Unclaimed] is a book that speaks to the power of narrative. Hearing stories makes us feel less alone. Hearing stories pushes us to ask hard questions of ourselves. This book has landed at just the right moment. . . . I didn’t expect to come away feeling so sanguine about humanity.”—The Atlantic

“The Unclaimed . . . poignantly illustrates the forces that leave so many vulnerable to homelessness and addiction as well as to social isolation, excavating the growing population of those who are left to die without a community.”—The New Republic

“Here’s hoping you can read one-handed. Left or right, you’ll need the other hand to place over your mouth when you’re touched by the beauty and humanity inside The Unclaimed.”—Wyoming Tribune Eagle

“What The Unclaimed lays bare about our families, our loneliness, our poverty—and our decency and courage, as well—demands that we reexamine our own lives while we still have breath.”—Matthew Desmond, author of Poverty, by America

“Powerful. Haunting. This book is living witness to the millions of forgotten dead, reminding us that we reaffirm our own humanity each time we tell the stories of those already gone.”—Kate Bowler, author of Everything Happens for a Reason

“The Unclaimed is a stunning work of narrative journalism that takes on the difficult, even taboo subject of society’s unclaimed dead. . . . Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans . . . explain how our flawed systems threaten to withhold this final dignity for society’s most vulnerable.”—Roxanna Asgarian, author of We Were Once a Family

“With exceptional humanity, The Unclaimed follows the dead who have fallen through the cracks of Los Angeles’ stifling postmortem bureaucracy. A bracing and impressive read.”—Caitlin Doughty, author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

“The Unclaimed reveals just how easy it is for even relatively stable Americans to slide into lives of ghastly isolation, and to die alone.”—Jill Leovy, author of Ghettoside

“A gripping and compassionate account that leaves us with a feeling of social and personal responsibility for our kin, our community, and ourselves.”—BookPage, starred review

“An unsettling study of how social fracturing and community breakdown underpin lonely deaths . . . researched and written with appropriate sensitivity, care, and dignity.”—Kirkus Reviews Expand reviews