by Mary Roach
First published 2025
The human body stands as the world's most intricate machine, yet no manufacturer provides replacement parts when it breaks down. Mary Roach tackles this fundamental problem by examining how medicine has scrambled for centuries to patch us up with whatever works. Doctors have shaped noses from brass, borrowed frog skin for grafts, installed pig hearts, and fashioned breasts from petroleum products. Modern medicine now attempts growing organs from stem cells and printing new parts with 3D technology. Roach asks the hard questions: When should someone choose amputation over keeping a failing limb? Can donated hearts beat indefinitely? She visits burn units in Boston, sterile pig farms in China, and hair growth labs in San Diego. Her journey includes conversations with surgeons, amputees, kidney printers, and organ designers. She experiences a 1950s iron lung firsthand and shadows tissue recovery teams through the night. This exploration reveals both the remarkable progress and persistent challenges in rebuilding human bodies.
Genres: science, medical, non-fiction, technology, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: informative, investigative
Setting: Boston, China, San Diego
Period: 1950s
288 pages · Hardcover · W. W. Norton & Company