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Playing Dead Elizabeth Greenwood

Playing Dead By Elizabeth Greenwood

Playing Dead by Elizabeth Greenwood


$56.99
Condition - Very Good
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Summary

Synopsis coming soon.......

Playing Dead Summary

Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud by Elizabeth Greenwood

Is it still possible to fake your own death in the twenty-first century? With six figures of student loan debt, Elizabeth Greenwood was tempted to find out.

So she sets off on a foray into the world of death fraud, where for $30,000 a consultant can make you disappear-but your suspicious insurance company might hire a private detective to dig up your coffin...only to find it filled with rocks.

Greenwood tracks down a man who staged a kayaking accident and then returned to live in his own house while all his neighbors thought he was dead. She takes a call from Michael Jackson (yes, he's alive-or so some would have her believe), talks to people contemplating pseudocide, and gathers intel on black market morgues in the Philippines, where she may or may not succeed in obtaining some fraudulent goodies of her own. Along the way, she learns that love is a much less common motive than money, and that making your death look like a drowning virtually guarantees you'll be caught. (Disappearing while hiking, however, is a great way to go.)

Playing Dead is an utterly fascinating and charmingly bizarre investigation into our all-too-human desire to escape from the lives we lead, and the men and women desperate enough to lose their identities-and their families-to begin again.

Playing Dead Reviews

A beguiling foray into the wacky yet somehow ever-fascinating realm of death fraud.
- Maria Konnikova, New York Times bestselling author of The Confidence Game
Mesmerizing.
- Elle
Wonderfully weird.
- Deborah Blum, New York Times bestselling author of The Poisoner's Handbook
Elizabeth Greenwood is as entertaining and gifted an archeologist of subcultures as she is an able explorer of issues like anonymity, the right to privacy, and how much control people can ever exert over their identities. An energetic and insatiable writer, her generous mind infuses every page of this astonishing book.
- Heidi Julavits, author of The Folded Clock
Exuberant and ironic, witty and compassionate, various and keenly-focused, Playing Dead is eccentric investigative journalism. A terrific subject, where the deadly (excuse the pun) serious and absurdly comic meet and mesh.
- Margo Jefferson, author of Negroland
Riveting.
- The Huffington Post
Ghoulishly existential.
- BloombergBusinessweek
Quirky, engaging, and surprisingly uplifting... Elizabeth Greenwood has written a book about death, faked and real, that teaches us much about life.
- Eric Weiner, New York Times bestselling author of The Geography of Genius
Playing Dead marks the debut of a very talented author. Both the book and the writer are cause for celebration.
- Jeff Guinn, New York Times bestselling author of Manson
A bizarre expose of the disappearance industry.
- Entertainment Weekly
Wildly entertaining.
-Tony Perrottet, author of Napoleon's Privates
Slightly macabre, but ultimately very human; it is a questioning of how we seek satisfaction in life, and when we cut and run. Greenwood's narrative voice is humble and approachable, but as an investigator she is tenacious.... Playing Dead will please those attracted to the eccentric, as well as anyone who has ever fantasized about leaving it all behind.
- Shelf Awareness
Belongs to that genre of popular nonfiction best exemplified by Jon Ronson.... It's a form that above all requires a likable, self-deprecating, curious narrator, and Greenwood fits the bill.
- Slate
Catnip.
- The Guardian
Highly entertaining.
- Lenny Letter
Earnestly researched.
- Kirkus Reviews
From digging up suspect graves to buying her own death certificate, Greenwood investigates the work of death fraud with probing comedic wit, and ultimately delivers a reflection on the efficacy of escaping ourselves.
- DuJour
A tragicomic study.
- Bust
Entertaining and enlightening.
- Booklist
If your life totally sucks then simply end it and start a new one. Elizabeth Greenwood's creepy and hilarious foray into death fakery shows you how.
- Simon Doonan, author of The Asylum and Beautiful People

About Elizabeth Greenwood

Elizabeth Greenwood is the author of Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, VICE, O, the Oprah Magazine, Longreads, GQ, and others.

Additional information

GOR008424235
9781476739335
1476739331
Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud by Elizabeth Greenwood
Used - Very Good
Hardback
Simon & Schuster
2016-08-09
272
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. Overall we expect it to be in very good condition, but if you are not entirely satisfied please get in touch with us

Customer Reviews - Playing Dead