A firebrand rebel, Thomas Paine alone claims a key role in the development of three modern democracies. When this outspoken atheist died, however, his body was rejected by churches, and the author of Common Sense was buried on a New York farm. A decade later, his bones were moved to Britain where they were to be reinterred—but then were lost. In this wry travelogue, Paul Collins looks for relics of Paine, and in his wanderings he contends with a suicidal gunman, a Ferrari dealer, and berserk feral monkeys.