The Trouble with Tom

A Book Sense Fall 2005 History Channel Top Ten Pick Paul Collins combines present-day travelogue with an odyssey down the forgotten paths of history as he searches for the physical remains of founding father Thomas Paine. Paine's missing body, like a saint's relics, has been scattered in pieces around the world over the last two centuries-a brainstem in New York, a box of bones in London, a lock of hair in Edinburgh, a skull in Sydney. As Paul tracks down these remnants, he revisits the unusual life of Tom Paine-and in his search for Paine's body, Collins uncovers that body's soul. "Savor this peculiar history of the way Thomas Paine's ideas—and his corpse—traveled after he died."-People Paul Collins is the author of Sixpence House and Not Even Wrong: A Father's Journey into the Lost History of Autism . He edits the Collins Library for McSweeney's Books, and his work has appeared in New Scientist , the Village Voice , and Business 2.0 .