This searing, heartbreaking book tells the story of poverty today, and the people who live it.
2015 MacArthur 'Genius' award winner Matthew Desmond is an associate professor of sociology and social science at Harvard University and co-director of the Justice and Poverty Project. He is the author of the award-winning book On The Fireline and his writing has appeared in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune.
An intimate portrait of what it's like to be powerless in the
world's superpower ... Evicted shows how the smallest event can rip
through poor lives, sending them spinning out of control... To
British eyes, the narrative reads like a dispatch from the
near-future.
*Guardian*
For the two or three weeks I was reading the book, it formed my
topic of conversation with friends, and at night, when I went to
sleep, it filled my thoughts ... It makes you aware of how
complicated the webs holding you up are.
*New Statesman*
A monumental and vivid study of urban poverty ... Evicted demands
attention. It shines a klieg light on a dark corner of the American
experience
*Sunday Times*
Heartbreaking... Desmond's acute observational skills, his facility
with reported dialogue and his ability to wrench chaotic stories
into clear prose make Evicted a vivid, if sometimes gruelling,
read... with UK house prices unaffordable, a dearth of council
housing and a Government committed to austerity, Evicted serves as
a warning as to what happens when a society refuses to recognise
the fundamental human right to shelter
*Independent*
A remarkable ethnography ... [Desmond] has a novelist's eye for the
telling detail and a keen ear for dialogue ... This is a
significant literary achievement, as well as a feat of reporting
underpinned by statistical labour
*Financial Times*
Astonishing ... Desmond has set a new standard for reporting on
poverty
*Herald*
An extraordinary ethnographic study... Desmond takes people who are
usually seen as worthless, and shows us their full humanity ... By
examining one city through the microscopic lens of housing, he
shows us how the system that produces that pain and poverty was
created and is maintained
*Guardian*
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