Clea Koff
The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda,Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo (2004)
Author: Clea Koff
Genre (subgenre): Nonfiction (Memoir/Inside Encounter)
Book Summary:
Koff is a young forensic anthropologist who goes on missions for the UN in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. She investigates mass graves with teams of physicians, anthropologists, and forensic scientists for several International Criminal Tribunals, gathering evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity. The daughter of documentary filmmakers interested in human rights, she also wants truth and justice. She describes personal conflicts within the teams, UN beauracracy, her nightmares and fears, brief glimpses of places ravaged by civil wars, her struggle to remain detached for the work, excitement in uncovering bodies (because official denials can now be proved wrong), meetings with families of the “disappeared,” and emotional and physical exhaustion. Koff eventually leads a team in Kosovo. She concludes by discussing a talk she gave at UCLA after the Kosovo mission on examining her experiences and emotions, the ingredients of war, her hope that people will “understand one another....in a way that cannot be swayed by government propaganda,” and her appreciation for these missions.
Geographical Settings: Rwanda; Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia; Arizona; California
Time Period: 1996 - 2000
Appeal Characteristics:
Not for the faint of heart. Descriptions of skeletons and human remains in various states of decay are clinical and thorough. However, any sadness or horror in the reader does not result from these descriptions, but from the stories the bones tell--hundreds of individuals murdered en masse by their own neighbors and countrymen. Koff tells her story with honesty, humor, and hope. Personal reflections and facts are delivered at a moderate pace. Forensic examinations and anthropological processes are detailed. Readers interested in human rights investigations and/or life on an anthropological dig will want this book.
Red Flags: Details of decaying bodies and skeletons; descriptions of genocide; occasional profanity
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