Awards

• Winner of Bram Stoker Awards (Nonfiction) 2006

Overview

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.)

Full Product Details

9780060817411

Table of Contents

Reviews

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

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

Author Information

Michael Largo is the author of The Big, Bad Book of Beasts; God’s Lunatics; Genius and Heroin; The Portable Obituary; the Bram Stoker Award-winning Final Exits: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of How We Die; and three novels. He is the former editor of New York Poetry and the researcher/archivist for the film company Allied Artists. He and his family live in Florida with their dog, two turtles, a parrot, two canaries, and a tank of fish.

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