And now you belong. You’ve signed on the dotted line, joined a new church, book club, service group or savings program. You belong, and you’re ready to help others, meet new people, have new experiences and feel good about it. Joining can be a great, fun opportunity but, as in the new book “The Unclaimed” by Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans, is belonging forever?

Chances are, you don’t think about it much.

Or you do, because you or someone you love is ill and the fact occurs that death may be near. Maybe not today or tomorrow or even this year, but you will die someday. Everybody does eventually but since the turn of this century, up to 4 percent of Americans did it, leaving behind remains that were never claimed.

To some, that may seem unimaginable. To others who know, it’s daunting: As many as 114,000 people per year are buried without family present. This book is about some of them, an almost-hidden 3-acre cemetery in the heart of Los Angeles, mass graves holding thousands of cremains, and the “efforts to unravel the mystery of [those] unclaimed: Who are they? And why do they end up where they do?”

Prickett and Timmermans follow the story of Bobby, a former veteran who hoped for a singing career but who struggled with homelessness and drug abuse. He had an ex-wife and a son, surely one of them would claim his cremains.

They reported 89-year-old Lena’s health decline as she was forced to move from her hoarded, filthy home. Her friends tried to help her but in the end, Lena was one of those unfortunate souls who fell through the cracks of society.

David surrounded himself with interesting things and people who loved his stories. Midge lived in a van in a church yard, until her friends took her in and built her an apartment. And Albert and Craig ensured that the dead were given the dignity that life may not have offered them because, “unless every body counts, nobody counts.”

Here’s hoping you can read one-handed. Left or right, you’ll need the other hand to place over your mouth when you’re touched by the beauty and humanity inside “The Unclaimed.”

Indeed, the very premise of this book may stir you. You may approach it with a dozen questions and feelings. Someone was unwanted? Rejected? Left in a numbered box on a shelf for years? It piques your interest as it hurts your heart but authors Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmerman surely don’t leave you that way. Yes, the stories they tell are of people, dead and alive, but you’ll be happy to know that there are heroes and angels inside those tales. The authors also explain their methodology and why they believe such a high number of people die unclaimed.

You’ll be surprised but, alas, probably not too much.

Sensitive readers will be happy to know that there’s no gruesomeness inside this book. You’ll only find dignity in “The Unclaimed” and it belongs on your bookshelf.

— The Bookworm Sez