The Price of Life

In Search of What We're Worth and Who Decides

Jenny Kleeman

$39.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
Pre-Order now

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English

Picador
09 July 2024

Reportage & collected journalism; Social research & statistics; Social & cultural anthropology

A Radio 4 Book of the Week 'Jon Ronson meets Louis Theroux in the style of Joan Didion' - Telegraph 'Jaw-droppingly illuminating' - inews

We say that life is priceles but in these surprising stories that explore the value of human life, journalist, broadcaster and documentary-maker Jenny Kleeman takes us on an adventure to meet some of the people who decide what we're worth.

The cost of saving a life, creating a life or compensating for a life taken is routinely calculated and put into practice. In a world in love with data, it is possible to run a cost-benefit analysis on anything - including life itself. For philanthropists, judges, criminals, healthcare providers and government ministers, it's just part of the job.

In a series of extraordinary encounters - with people who have faked their own death or lost a loved one to terrorism, with hitmen and with modern day slaves - Kleeman discovers more questions than answers. What does it mean for our humanity when we crunch the numbers to decide who gets the expensive life-saving drugs, and who misses out? What do we learn about ourselves when philanthropic giving by the effective altruists in Silicon Valley is received by some, while others are left to suffer? Are some lives really worth more than others? And what happens when we take human emotions out of the equation? Does it make for a fairer decision-making process - or for moral bankruptcy?

Exploring the final frontier in monetization, Kleeman asks what we lose and what we gain by leaving the judgments that really matter up to cold, hard logic.

'Compelling' - Literary Review 'Reframes how you think about the world' - Sophie Elmhirst, author of Maurice and Maralyn 'Gripping' - Daily Mail 'Writing, thinking and storytelling at its best' - Ben Judah, author of This Is Europe

By: Jenny Kleeman
Imprint: Picador
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 224mm, Width: 144mm, Spine: 32mm
Weight: 458g
ISBN: 9781035004966
ISBN 10: 1035004968
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 09 July 2024
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Jenny Kleeman is a journalist, documentary-maker and radio presenter. She writes for The Guardian, Tortoise, The Times and The Sunday Times. She has reported for BBC One's Panorama, Channel 4's Dispatches and VICE News Tonight on HBO, as well as making thirteen films from across the globe for Channel 4's Unreported World. The Price of Life is her second book.

Reviews for The Price of Life: In Search of What We're Worth and Who Decides

I found this book unputdownable, missing Tube stations and bus stops I was so engrossed by it . . . I urge you to take this book home with you, even steal it. -- Ben Judah, author of <i>This Is London<i> and <i> This Is Europe <i> So smart - a concept that re-frames how you think about the world. And, as always, reported with insane flair. -- Sophie Elmhirst A thrilling adventure that takes in the strange and the profound - via hitmen, hostage negotiators, embryos, and the organ trade. It's funny. It's dark. It's moving. It's brilliant. Reading it, you'll come away with a sense of gratitude, understanding that your own life is that little more valuable. -- Oliver Franklin-Wallis