title: Memento Mori: The Dead Among Us
author:  Paul Koudounaris 
description: Show[s], in stunning visual terms, mankinds universal desire to cross the threshold of death and continue a meaningful relationship with those who have departed.<br /> - <strong><em>Heavy Metal</em></strong><br /><br /><em>Memento Mori</em> is led by the visuals: spellbinding images of decorated skulls, elaborate burials, and other death-related customs from around the world.<br /> - <strong><em>Vice.com</em></strong><br /><br />10 Best New Photography Books of Spring 2015<br /> - <strong><em>American Photo</em></strong><br /><br />Visually stunning . . . documents how different cultures around the world from Ethiopia to Rwanda to Nepal honor their dead.<br /> - <strong><em>OnMilwaukee.com</em></strong><br /><br />Skull after painted or bejeweled skull relays a story thats as much about life as it is about death. . . . Theres something intangible here  how memento mori, literally meaning remember that you will die, isn't always a looming threat, and tangible human remains can evoke love and respect for life.<br /> - <strong><em>Hyperallergic</em></strong><br /><br />Some of the most jaw-dropping imagery youll ever encounter.<br /> - <strong><em>Rue Morgue</em></strong><br /><br />Part history lesson, and part documentary. . . . This is a fascinating book that points out the evolution of the perception of death and the dead in various cultures.<br /> - <strong><em>Portland Book Review</em></strong><br /><br />Paul Koudounaris aims his lens at cultures where the dead play key roles in the lives of the livingas in a Bolivian festival where skulls are strewn with flower petals, or on Indonesian islands where the mummies of deceased family members are kept at home and given a place at the table, both literally and figuratively.<br /> - <strong><em>Smithsonian.com</em></strong><br /><br />Koudounaris is a skilled photographer, as the 500+ pictures in this oversized book attest, but even more so, he's a skilled and sensitive historian, who brings an anthropologist's empathy to the task of documenting and framing the varied practices depicted in the book. . . . Oversized with an embossed cover and spine, Memento Mori sports outstanding color prints and beautiful design.<br /> - <strong><em>Boing Boing</em></strong><br /><br />Compelling essays explain how life is celebrated by honoring the physical remnants of the body. Some may find the topic morbid, but the images are undeniably beautiful, haunting, and visually striking. The books cross-cultural approach portrays death as a transition, rather than an irreversible and impenetrable border. Recommended for readers who are both fascinated with the macabre and comfortable with their own mortality.<br /> - <strong><em>Library Journal</em></strong>
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  Also by Christy Ann Conlin
  
  Heave
  
  The Memento
  
  Watermark
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2021 Christy Ann Conlin
  
  Published in Canada in 2021 by House of Anansi Press Inc.
  
  [www.houseofanansi.com](http://www.houseofanansi.com)
  
  * * *
  
  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
  transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
  photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system,
  without permission in writing from the publisher.
  
  All of the events and characters in this book are fictitious or are used
  fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely
  coincidental.
  
  Permission is gratefully acknowledged to reprint the following:
  
  Excerpt from The Faraway Nearby by Rebecca Solnit, copyright © 2013 by Rebecca
  Solnit. Used by permission of Viking Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing
  Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
  