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All That Remains
- Narrated by: Sue Black
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Release date: 26-04-2018
- Language: English
- Publisher: Random House Audiobooks
- Whispersync for Voice-ready
Regular price: $36.45
Publisher's Summary
Random House presents the audiobook edition of All That Remains by Professor Sue Black, read by the author.
Sue Black confronts death every day. As Professor of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology, she focuses on mortal remains in her lab; at burial sites; at scenes of violence, murder and criminal dismemberment; and when investigating mass fatalities due to war, accident or natural disaster. In All That Remains, she reveals the many faces of death she has come to know, using key cases to explore how forensic science has developed and what her work has taught her.
Do we expect a book about death to be sad? Macabre? Sue’s book is neither. There is tragedy, but there is also humour in stories as gripping as the best crime novel. Our own death will remain a great unknown. But as an expert witness from the final frontier, Sue Black is the wisest, most reassuring, most compelling of guides.
Critic Reviews
"Dame Sue Black writes about life and death with great tenderness but no nonsense, with impeccable science lucidly explained, and with moral depths humanely navigated, so that we can all feel better about the path we must all inevitably follow. I am genuinely glad I read this book." (Lee Child)
"Compelling, brave and extremely accessible.... A must for anyone who thinks about the basics of living and dying. And there are jokes as well." (Rachel Joyce)
What members say
Average Customer Ratings
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4.5 out of 5 stars
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 10-07-2018
Gone but not forgotten.
What a great book! Sue’s highland lilt makes it an easy listen and makes it personal. It had good balance. It was factual, but not dry. Informative but not ghoulish. I laughed, I cried, and I reflected on man’s inhumanity to man.
As a Dundee dental graduate I had the honour of doing full body dissection. It was a full sensory experience for which I will always be eternally grateful. Thank you to the donors and their families.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Catherine D.
- 30-04-2018
fascinating book, wonderfully read
This was an absolutely amazing view into the life of a celebrated forensic anthropologist. At times very sad, Sue never flinches from an honest portrayal of the stories she's either lived herself, or discovered from remains. She reads wonderfully, and, having listened to the book in just one weekend, I never found her boring in the slightest.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Cabaspre
- 29-04-2018
Fascinating and life-affirming
I have been a Sue Black fan for a long time and more recently have done a Forensic Anthropology short course becoming more fascinated in the subject. Sue Black narrated this really well, supposedly because she must give so many vibrant lectures. Her enthusiasm for her work must be so infectious to her enthralled students and surely has stood her in good stead when pursuing different areas of her work. The book will hopefully result in more donations of bodies for anatomical study and more understanding for the need for money to research ideas to aid forensic exploration. Chapter 13 needed a little more editing so as not to repeat a previously told scenario. I would have given 5 stars but, for me, I was hoping for more details i.e. the otic capsule description was thrilling, but understand that possibly from an audible point of view this could not be a text book without clear anatomical drawings. Oh! to be 40 years younger and live near Dundee! I would have worked a lot harder at school if such a course had existed at the time. Thank you Sue Black for everything you have done to ease the pain of the families involved that necessitated your expertise and for increasing the knowledge of this branch of science. PS. I loved that the rat had, literally, the last word!
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 19-06-2018
simply moving
Beautifully told. I laughed and cried. what a fantastic story. Thank you Sue Black. Thank you
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- bunnypath
- 10-06-2018
More please
I had heard Dame Sue Black speak in person in both public and in professional settings. Therefore I hit the “buy now” option as soon as I realised she had published this book.
I listened almost straight through in one sitting. This is simply the best book I have ever purchased from Audible, and the icing on the cake was to listen to the authors own voice.
I can only say hear it for yourself as no amount of superlatives can do justice to the tale within. Dame Sue please you must write some more.....
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- sarah
- 26-05-2018
A fascinating listen.
Professor Dame Sue Black is not only a world class forensic anthropologist and anatomist, she can also tell a good tale, explain scientifically complex information to the layman and set out some of the horrific things she has witnessed in her professional career without ever seeming to be mawkish or sensational. She is honest, succinct and at times really funny. A great book.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Book lover
- 11-09-2018
Hard hitting
very good. Hard listening in some places when she talks about Kosovo but extremely important to hear.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Eldasensei
- 28-08-2018
What an insightful book.
Absolutely loved this book. Sue Black is just super smart, hyper-empathetic, a great writer and a brilliant narrator. Her insights into human physiology and how the science of anatomy is used in forensics is very compelling. What I really liked about this book is how Black peppers (sorry) the story of her professional life with vignettes that give a window into her own life as a mother and someone who deals with the emotional side of death much like anyone else. It's apparent she has mastered the compartmentalisation of her work from an emotional point of view as she has witnessed some truly shocking scenes and she describes some of them in detail in this book. However, she describes them with such compassion and such an unfaltering respect for the dead that you cannot help but warm to her as just a normal wife and mother as well as a leading anatomist. The section of the book that pertains to her work in Kosovo in the late 90s/early 2000s is simply riveting.
I had just finished reading a rather gruesome book about the forensic psychology of serial killers and I really enjoyed how this book tempered the pain of death and the potential cruelty of humans towards each other with a respect, clarity and detachment that only a skilled clinician with decades of experience could bring to a subject like anatomical forensics that is of course enshrined in death.
One of my favourite Audible books to date and kudos to Sue Black for narrating the book herself; she did a magnificent job.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- eva Dukes
- 12-06-2018
Something different
I saw this advertised and thought I’d give it a go
What an absolutely wonderful book probably one of the only books to make me cry as I have a heart of stone, Great teacher with a great knowledge about death dying Exhumation and identification of bodies as well as forensics expertise told you in Lehmans terms.
Is it gross in parts yes, not a lunchtime listening.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- TAG
- 20-05-2018
Moving
This is hands down the best book I’ve listened to all year. It’s a mixture of accessible science, real life examples and personal anecdotes and the result is truly beautiful. I’m not ashamed to say I cried repeatedly throughout, both when Sue Black recounts particularly moving, personal stories but also when it reminded me of when my own loved ones died. It’s the sort of book that you listen to on a train and wonder how nobody can notice you are experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions. I am usually dubious of authors reading their own works, but her delivery is perfect. I cannot recommend listening to this enough.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lloydy
- 14-05-2018
What a story
Talking about the dead made so easy, compassionate and thoughtful. Easy listening and keeps you gripped.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful