The Unclaimed
Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels
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Narrated by:
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Nan McNamara
About this listen
“A rare and compassionate look into the lives of Americans who go unclaimed when they die and those who dedicate their lives to burying them with dignity.”—Matthew Desmond, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Poverty, by America
“A work of grace . . . Both cleareyed and disturbing, yet pulsing with empathy.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)
For centuries, people who died destitute or alone were buried in potters’ fields—a Dickensian end that even the most hard-pressed families tried to avoid. Today, more and more relatives are abandoning their dead, leaving it to local governments to dispose of the bodies. Up to 150,000 Americans now go unclaimed each year. Who are they? Why are they being forgotten? And what is the meaning of life if your death doesn’t matter to others?
In this extraordinary work of narrative nonfiction, eight years in the making, sociologists Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans uncover a hidden social world. They follow four individuals in Los Angeles, tracing the twisting, poignant paths that put each at risk of going unclaimed, and introducing us to the scene investigators, notification officers, and crematorium workers who care for them when no one else will.
The Unclaimed lays bare the difficult truth that anyone can be abandoned. It forces us to confront a variety of social ills, from the fracturing of families and the loneliness of cities to the toll of rising inequality. But it is also filled with unexpected moments of tenderness. In Boyle Heights, a Mexican American neighborhood not far from the glitter of Hollywood, hundreds of strangers come together each year to mourn the deaths of people they never knew. These ceremonies, springing up across the country, reaffirm our shared humanity and help mend our frayed social fabric.
Beautifully crafted and profoundly empathetic, The Unclaimed urges us to expand our circle of caring—in death and in life.
©2024 Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans (P)2024 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“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
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Story
The summer before his senior year in college, Greg Melville worked at the cemetery in his hometown, and thanks to hour upon hour of pushing a mower over the grassy acres, he came to realize what a rich story the place told of his town and its history. Thus was born Melville’s lifelong curiosity with how, where, and why we bury and commemorate our dead. Melville’s Over My Dead Body is a lively (pun intended) and wide-ranging history of cemeteries, places that have mirrored the passing eras in history but have also shaped it.
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excellent read!
- By KJ on 03-05-23
By: Greg Melville
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In the Mouth of the Wolf
- A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press
- By: Katherine Corcoran
- Narrated by: Gigi Saul Guerrero
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
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Regina Martínez was no stranger to retaliation. A journalist out of Mexico’s Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, Regina's stories for the magazine Proceso laid out the corruption and abuse underlying Mexican politics. She was barred from press conferences, and copies of Proceso often disappeared before they made the newsstands. In 2012, shortly after Proceso published an article on corruption and two Veracruz politicians, and the magazine went missing once again, she was bludgeoned to death in her bathroom. The message was clear: No journalist in Mexico was safe.
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fascinating story ruined by bad narration
- By soup cook on 12-27-22
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Ghostland
- An American History in Haunted Places
- By: Colin Dickey
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Colin Dickey is on the trail of America's ghosts. Crammed into old houses and hotels, abandoned prisons and empty hospitals, the spirits that linger continue to capture our collective imagination, but why? His own fascination piqued by a house hunt in Los Angeles that revealed derelict foreclosures and "zombie homes", Dickey embarks on a journey across the continental United States to decode and unpack the American history repressed in our most famous haunted places.
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A fluffed-up college essay writ large.
- By Gavin on 10-13-16
By: Colin Dickey
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Nine Pints
- A Journey Through the Money, Medicine, and Mysteries of Blood
- By: Rose George
- Narrated by: Karen Cass
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Blood carries life, yet the sight of it makes people faint. It is a waste product and a commodity pricier than oil. It can save lives and transmit deadly infections. Each one of us has roughly nine pints of it, yet many don’t even know their own blood type. And for all its ubiquitousness, the few tablespoons of blood discharged by 800 million women are still regarded as taboo: menstruation is perhaps the single most demonized biological event.
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Author goes on long unnecessary tangents
- By Jonathan Malzone on 03-03-19
By: Rose George
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Tremors in the Blood
- Murder, Obsession, and the Birth of the Lie Detector
- By: Amit Katwala
- Narrated by: Paul Bellantoni
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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As new forms of lie detection gain momentum in the present day, Tremors in the Blood reveals the incredible truth behind the creation of the polygraph, through gripping true-crime cases featuring explosive gunfights, shocking twists, and high-stakes courtroom drama. Touching on psychology, technology, and the science of the truth, Tremors in the Blood is a vibrant, atmospheric thriller and a warning from history: beware what you believe.
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Incredible Book
- By Christine on 01-04-24
By: Amit Katwala
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Dark Archives
- A Librarian's Investigation into the Science and History of Books Bound in Human Skin
- By: Megan Rosenbloom
- Narrated by: Justis Bolding
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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On bookshelves around the world, surrounded by ordinary books bound in paper and leather, rest other volumes of a distinctly strange and grisly sort: those bound in human skin. Would you know one if you held it in your hand? In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom seeks out the historic and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy - the practice of binding books in this most intimate covering.
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Fascinating
- By Abbey Pflegl on 11-21-21
By: Megan Rosenbloom
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Over My Dead Body
- Unearthing the Hidden History of American Cemeteries
- By: Greg Melville
- Narrated by: Will Tulin
- Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The summer before his senior year in college, Greg Melville worked at the cemetery in his hometown, and thanks to hour upon hour of pushing a mower over the grassy acres, he came to realize what a rich story the place told of his town and its history. Thus was born Melville’s lifelong curiosity with how, where, and why we bury and commemorate our dead. Melville’s Over My Dead Body is a lively (pun intended) and wide-ranging history of cemeteries, places that have mirrored the passing eras in history but have also shaped it.
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excellent read!
- By KJ on 03-05-23
By: Greg Melville
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In the Mouth of the Wolf
- A Murder, a Cover-Up, and the True Cost of Silencing the Press
- By: Katherine Corcoran
- Narrated by: Gigi Saul Guerrero
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Regina Martínez was no stranger to retaliation. A journalist out of Mexico’s Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, Regina's stories for the magazine Proceso laid out the corruption and abuse underlying Mexican politics. She was barred from press conferences, and copies of Proceso often disappeared before they made the newsstands. In 2012, shortly after Proceso published an article on corruption and two Veracruz politicians, and the magazine went missing once again, she was bludgeoned to death in her bathroom. The message was clear: No journalist in Mexico was safe.
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fascinating story ruined by bad narration
- By soup cook on 12-27-22
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Data Baby
- My Life in a Psychological Experiment
- By: Susannah Breslin
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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When Susannah Breslin is a toddler, her parents enroll her in an exclusive laboratory preschool at the University of California, Berkeley, where she becomes one of 128 children who are research subjects in an unprecedented 30-year psychological experiment that predicts who she and her cohort will grow up to be. Decades later, trapped in an abusive marriage to a man with a violent history and battling breast cancer, she starts to wonder how growing up under a microscope shaped the person she became and her life choices. Is she the narrator of the story of her life, or is something else?
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There should be a law. Oh wait there is.
- By all our stories on 05-31-24
By: Susannah Breslin
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Trail of the Lost
- The Relentless Search to Bring Home the Missing Hikers of the Pacific Crest Trail
- By: Andrea Lankford
- Narrated by: Kristi Burns
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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As a park ranger with the National Park Service's law enforcement team, Andrea Lankford led search and rescue missions in some of the most beautiful (and dangerous) landscapes across America, from Yosemite to the Grand Canyon. But though she had the support of the agency, Andrea grew frustrated with the service's bureaucratic idiosyncrasies, and left the force after twelve years. Two decades later, however, she stumbles across a mystery that pulls her right back where she left off: three young men have vanished from the Pacific Crest Trail.
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Much ado about nothing
- By Linda Harmon on 10-01-23
By: Andrea Lankford
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The Great Mortality
- An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time
- By: John Kelly
- Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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The plague that devastated Asia and Europe in the 14th century has been of never-ending interest to both scholars and the general public. Many books on the plague rely on statistics to tell the story. In The Great Mortality, author John Kelly lends an air of immediacy and intimacy to his telling of the journey of the plague as it traveled from the steppes of Russia, across Europe, and into England, killing 75 million people—one third of the known population—before it vanished.
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Endless Speculation and Contradiction
- By Greg on 04-20-24
By: John Kelly
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The Butchering Art
- Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine
- By: Lindsey Fitzharris
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Butchering Art, the historian Lindsey Fitzharris reveals the shocking world of 19th-century surgery on the eve of profound transformation. She conjures up early operating theaters - no place for the squeamish - and surgeons, working before anesthesia, who were lauded for their speed and brute strength. They were baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. A young, melancholy Quaker surgeon named Joseph Lister would solve the deadly riddle and change the course of history.
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Not one boring moment!
- By WRWF on 12-22-17
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Without a Prayer
- The Death of Lucas Leonard and How One Church Became a Cult
- By: Susan Ashline
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 13 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Teenager Lucas Leonard made shocking admissions in front of the altar - he'd practiced witchcraft, conspired to murder his parents, and committed unspeakable crimes. The confessions earned him a brutal beating by a gang of angry church members, including his parents and sister. Lucas was brought to the hospital dead, awakening the sleepy community of Chadwicks, New York, to the horror that had been lurking next door. Nine members of Lucas' church would eventually find themselves facing murder-related charges. But how did they get to that point? And what made Lucas confess?
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The Depravity of the Human Soul
- By J. Miller on 01-31-20
By: Susan Ashline
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The Day I Die
- The Untold Story of Assisted Dying in America
- By: Dr. Anita Hannig
- Narrated by: Linda Jones
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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In this groundbreaking book, Anita Hannig brings us into the lives of ordinary Americans who go to extraordinary lengths to set the terms of their own death. Faced with a terminal diagnosis and unbearable suffering, they decide to seek medical assistance in dying—a legal option now available to one in five Americans. The Day I Die tackles one of the most urgent social issues of our time: how to restore dignity and meaning to the dying process in the age of high-tech medicine.
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Honest, Revealing
- By Mark L on 08-26-22
By: Dr. Anita Hannig
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Lay Them to Rest
- On the Road with the Cold Case Investigators Who Identify the Nameless
- By: Laurah Norton
- Narrated by: Laurah Norton
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Fans of true crime shows like CSI, NCIS, Criminal Minds, and Law and Order know that when it comes to “getting the bad guy” behind bars, your best chance of success boils down to the strength of your evidence—and the forensic science used to obtain it. Beyond the silver screen, forensic science has been used for decades to help solve even the most tough-to-crack cases.
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Enjoyable author, but not my style
- By Anonymous User on 11-21-23
By: Laurah Norton
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Cannibalism
- By: Bill Schutt
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Eating one's own kind is a completely natural behavior in thousands of species, including humans. Throughout history we have engaged in cannibalism for reasons related to famine, burial rites, and medicine. Cannibalism has also been used as a form of terrorism and as the ultimate expression of filial piety. With unexpected wit and a wealth of knowledge, Bill Schutt takes us on a tour of the field, exploring exciting new avenues of research and investigating questions like why so many fish eat their offspring and some amphibians consume their mothers' skin.
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Ruined it at the end
- By Kimberly Ames on 12-07-17
By: Bill Schutt
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The Soviet Century
- Archaeology of a Lost World
- By: Karl Schlogel, Rodney Livingstone - translator
- Narrated by: Ciaran Saward
- Length: 29 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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The Soviet Union is gone, but its ghostly traces remain, not least in the material vestiges left behind in its turbulent wake. What was it really like to live in the USSR? What did it look, feel, smell, and sound like? In The Soviet Century, Karl Schlögel, one of the world's leading historians of the Soviet Union, presents a spellbinding epic that brings to life the everyday world of a unique lost civilization. A museum of—and travel guide to—the Soviet past, The Soviet Century explores in evocative detail both the largest and smallest aspects of life in the USSR.
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Great work
- By J. H. Robinson on 07-28-24
By: Karl Schlogel, and others
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From Here to Eternity
- Traveling the World to Find the Good Death
- By: Caitlin Doughty
- Narrated by: Caitlin Doughty
- Length: 5 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies, mortician Caitlin Doughty set out to discover how other cultures care for their dead. In rural Indonesia, she observes a man clean and dress his grandfather's mummified body. Grandpa's mummy has lived in the family home for two years, where the family has maintained a warm and respectful relationship. She meets Bolivian natitas (cigarette-smoking, wish-granting human skulls) and introduces us to a Japanese kotsuage.
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Caitlin has done it again
- By Shaun on 10-03-17
By: Caitlin Doughty
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We Carry Their Bones
- The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys
- By: Erin Kimmerle
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The Arthur G. Dozier Boys School was a well-guarded secret in Florida for over a century, until reports of cruelty, abuse, and “mysterious” deaths shut the institution down in 2011. Established in 1900, the juvenile reform school accepted children as young as six years of age for crimes as harmless as truancy or trespassing. The boys sent there, many of whom were Black, were subject to brutal abuse, routinely hired out to local farmers by the school’s management as indentured labor, and died either at the school or attempting to escape its brutal conditions.
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The word Bones
- By Charlene J on 08-19-24
By: Erin Kimmerle
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Waiting for an Echo
- The Madness of American Incarceration
- By: Christine Montross
- Narrated by: Christine Montross
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Dr. Christine Montross has spent her career treating the most severely ill psychiatric patients. Several years ago, she set out to investigate why so many of her patients got caught up in the legal system when discharged from her care - and what happened to them therein. Waiting for an Echo is a riveting, rarely seen glimpse into American incarceration. It is also a damning account of policies that have criminalized mental illness, shifting large numbers of people who belong in therapeutic settings into punitive ones.
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life changing
- By Diana Kiesel on 08-05-20
What listeners say about The Unclaimed
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Mama&cubs
- 09-11-24
Fantastic
Engrossing account of a subject I barely knew existed. The author provides a well researched, compassionate look at end of life. As a nurse, I believe this is required reading.
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- ThatNYCgirl
- 04-14-24
Sad but True
I appreciate the contents of this book. It’s important that even the unclaimed have a voice and those who care to know get some insight into the how and why. Heartbreaking and gut wrenching its truth of human life and nature is so many things. It’s a book everyone should read in hopes it would affect the faith of the unclaimed. I’m grateful to all who take on this task as a job. God bless them and all who go unclaimed and my the unclaimed rest in peace for those who tried to make it so.
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- Brown
- 05-04-24
Remember you must die
All tribes will die. Think how you speak about someone in your family tribe how they become estranged the black sheep of the family and nobody wants there ash? Plan ahead.
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- Bitzy
- 05-04-24
Title is deceiving
I thought this book was going to be more about how the more functions and less about stories about actual individuals. I would not recommend it.
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