To remove a relic, keep it as a personal possession, sell it or even give it to a museum violates the author’s personal ethic, although he recognizes the value of museums. Here he re-creates the experience of holding such an object and imagining the people who used it “centuries, even millennia, earlier.” For the past decade, Childs has belonged to “a gang of relic hunters” who search out unaltered archaeology sites in the desert, “scouring the wilderness” to discover the “precious belongings that people cared for” without disturbing them. Growing up in the American Southwest, the author learned to cherish the artifacts he and his father uncovered in the desert. His topic is the past, and particularly, its material remains.Naturalist Childs ( The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild, 2007, etc.) probes our “meaningful, tangible connection to the people who came long before us.” " is the love child of Indiana Jones and George Hayduke.In his passionate and outspoken new book, he expands his scope to a global scale to look at the ethical dilemmas archeology poses. " Finders Keepers may be most tender and ferocious dissection.If you have ever ached to possess - or lost what you believed you possessed to change, time or someone else - you may find yourself equally possessed by Childs's razor-edge analysis and compassion."- Mary Sojourner, Psychology Today This nicely wrought, even poetic book about archeological excavation and the variety of people who are passionate about the past and its artifacts will fascinate everyone from high school students to professional archaeologists digging in the field. "Reads almost like a thriller, chock-full of vendettas, suicides and large scale criminal enterprises dedicated to the multimillion-dollar trade in antiques."- NPR, "Weekend All Things Considered" "This is a delightful account of the complicated world of archeology by an author who loves (one might say is borderline obsessed with) the past. "Craig Childs understands epiphanies, and he beautifully captures them.along with the moral ambiguities that come from exposing a long-hidden world."- George Johnson, New York Times Book Review
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