{"product_id":"being-dead-jim-crace-9780312275426","title":"Being Dead","description":"\u003cp\u003eLying in the sand dunes of Baritone Bay are the bodies of a middle-aged couple. Celice and Joseph, in their mid-50s and married for more than 30 years, are returning to the seacoast where they met as students. Instead, they are battered to death by a thief with a chunk of granite. Their corpses lie undiscovered and rotting for a week, prey to sand crabs, flies, and gulls. Yet there remains something touching about the scene, with Joseph's hand curving lightly around his wife's leg, quietly resting; flesh on flesh; dead, but not departed yet. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eTheir bodies had expired, but anyone could tell--just look at them--that Joseph and Celice were still devoted. For while his hand was touching her, curved round her shin, the couple seemed to have achieved that peace the world denies, a period of grace, defying even murder. Anyone who found them there, so wickedly disfigured, would nevertheless be bound to see that something of their love had survived the death of cells. The corpses were surrendered to the weather and the earth, but they were still a man and wife, quietly resting; flesh on flesh; dead, but not departed yet.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom that moment forward, \u003ci\u003eBeing Dead\u003c\/i\u003e becomes less about murder and more about death. Alternating chapters move back in time from the murder in hourly and two-hourly increments. As the narrative moves backward, we see Celice and Joseph make the small decisions about their day that will lead them inexorably towards their own deaths. In other chapters the narrative moves forward. Celice and Joseph are on vacation and nobody misses them until they do not return. Thus, it is six days before their bodies are found. Crace describes in minute detail their gradual return to the land with the help of crabs, birds, and the numerous insects that attack the body and gently and not so gently prepare it for the dust-to-dust phase of death.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jim Crace\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0312275420\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780312275426\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e St. Martins Press-3PL\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/21\/2001\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 208\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.55lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.60d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAccelerated Reader:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReading Level:\u003c\/b\u003e 6.6\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePoint Value:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eInterest Level:\u003c\/b\u003e Upper Grade\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eQuiz #\/Name: \u003c\/b\u003e78279 \/ Being Dead\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePeople Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/09\/2001 pg. 59\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e 04\/01\/2001 pg. 20","brand":"Jim Crace","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44047742664959,"sku":"9780312275426","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_c69ec53d-2b55-48ab-b5a7-8771ca30d58b.jpg?v=1684991933","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/being-dead-jim-crace-9780312275426","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}