Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die - Softcover

Largo, Michael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060817410 ISBN 13: 9780060817411

Publisher: William Morrow & Company, 2007

Synopsis

To die, kick the bucket, to meet your Maker, dead as a doornail, get whacked, smoked, bite the dust, sleep with the fishes, go six feet under--whatever death is called, it's going to happen. In 1789 Ben Franklin wrote, "In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes." Death remains a certainty. But how do we die? It's the enormous variety of how that enlivens final exits.

According to death certificates, in 1700 there were less than 100 causes of death. Today there are 3,000. With each advance of technology, people find new ways to become deceased, often causing trends that peak in the first year. People are now killed by everything, from cell phones, washing machines, lawn mowers and toothpicks, to the boundless catalog of man--made medicines. In Final Exits the causes of death--bizarre or common--are alphabetically arranged and include actual accounts of people, both famous and ordinary, who unfortunately died that way. (Ants, bad words, Bingo, bean bag chairs, flying cows, frozen toilets, hiccups, lipstick, moray eels, road kill, starfish, and toupees are only some of the more unusual causes.)

About this title

Review:

"Every mortal should read this book, before they find themselves in its pages."--Daniel Handler

Every mortal should read this book, before they find themselves in its pages. --Daniel Handler"

About the Author:

Michael Largo is the author of The Big, Bad Book of Beasts; God's Lunatics; Genius and Heroin; and the Bram Stoker Award-winning Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die, as well as three novels. He and his family live in Florida with their dog, two turtles, a parrot, two canaries, and a tank of fish.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0060817410
• ISBN 13: 9780060817411
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496