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9781665159043

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A book full of both literary grace and hard-won world-weariness...Iggy Pop meets Jim Carroll and Charles Bukowski. -- Kirkus Reviews Charlie LeDuff is a remarkable journalist, and this book is filled with incredible writing as he witnesses his home city crumble through neglect and corruption. -- Huffington Post Charlie LeDuff is...a brilliant writer. Detroit is full of righteous anger and heartbreaking details. It's also funny as hell. Hunter S. Thompson would've loved every page of this book. -- Eric Schlosser, New York Times bestselling author Eric Martin hits all the right notes in his narration of journalist Charlie LeDuff's chronicle of the problems that plague his hometown, the once flourishing and now foundering Detroit. The author's edgy tone is tough and uncompromising, befitting the harsh realities facing those who remain in the troubled city. Martin's narration mirrors LeDuff's writing as he voices the poverty, corruption, and crime of the city as well as the brash and irreverent personality of the author himself. Both author and narrator are by turns incredulous, despairing, and hopeful, though, as LeDuff concedes, hope can be hard to come by nowadays in Detroit. Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award. -- AudioFile LeDuff has done his best, and his book is better than good. -- New York Times Book Review One cannot read Mr. LeDuff's amalgam of memoir and reportage and not be shaken by the cold eye he casts on hard truths...A little gonzo, a little gumshoe, some gawker, some good-Samaritan--it is hard to ignore reporting like Mr. LeDuff's. -- Wall Street Journal Powerful and immensely enjoyable...With the same critical eye he uses on others, LeDuff entwines his personal life into the narrative, effectively breaking down any 'us vs. them' posturing. Eric Martin's narration is exactly right, reflecting all of LeDuff's sincerity, outrage, and despair...This masterly snapshot of a city in ruins translates superbly to the spoken word. -- Library Journal (starred audio review) Pultizer Prize-winning journalist LeDuff delivers an edgy portrait of the decline, destruction, and possible redemption of his hometown...LeDuff writes with honesty and compassion about a city that's destroying itself--and breaking his heart. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) What to do when you're a reporter and your native city is rotting away? If you're LeDuff, you leave the New York Times and head into the wreckage to ride with firemen, hang with the corrupt pols, and retrace your own family's sad steps through drugs. Others have written well about the city, but none with the visceral anger, the hair-tearing frustration, and the hungry humanity of LeDuff. -- Newsweek You wouldn't think a book about the stinking decay of the American dream could be this engaging, this irreverent, this laugh-at-loud funny. But not everyone can write like Charlie LeDuff. I'm tempted to say he's the writer for our desperate times the way Steinbeck and Orwell were for other people's desperate times, except he's such an original he's like no one but himself. -- Alexandra Fuller, author of Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness and Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

"""A book full of both literary grace and hard-won world-weariness...Iggy Pop meets Jim Carroll and Charles Bukowski."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""Charlie LeDuff is a remarkable journalist, and this book is filled with incredible writing as he witnesses his home city crumble through neglect and corruption."" -- ""Huffington Post"" ""Charlie LeDuff is...a brilliant writer. Detroit is full of righteous anger and heartbreaking details. It's also funny as hell. Hunter S. Thompson would've loved every page of this book."" -- ""Eric Schlosser, New York Times bestselling author"" ""Eric Martin hits all the right notes in his narration of journalist Charlie LeDuff's chronicle of the problems that plague his hometown, the once flourishing and now foundering Detroit. The author's edgy tone is tough and uncompromising, befitting the harsh realities facing those who remain in the troubled city. Martin's narration mirrors LeDuff's writing as he voices the poverty, corruption, and crime of the city as well as the brash and irreverent personality of the author himself. Both author and narrator are by turns incredulous, despairing, and hopeful, though, as LeDuff concedes, hope can be hard to come by nowadays in Detroit. Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award."" -- ""AudioFile"" ""LeDuff has done his best, and his book is better than good."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"" ""One cannot read Mr. LeDuff's amalgam of memoir and reportage and not be shaken by the cold eye he casts on hard truths...A little gonzo, a little gumshoe, some gawker, some good-Samaritan--it is hard to ignore reporting like Mr. LeDuff's."" -- ""Wall Street Journal"" ""Powerful and immensely enjoyable...With the same critical eye he uses on others, LeDuff entwines his personal life into the narrative, effectively breaking down any 'us vs. them' posturing. Eric Martin's narration is exactly right, reflecting all of LeDuff's sincerity, outrage, and despair...This masterly snapshot of a city in ruins translates superbly to the spoken word."" -- ""Library Journal (starred audio review)"" ""Pultizer Prize-winning journalist LeDuff delivers an edgy portrait of the decline, destruction, and possible redemption of his hometown...LeDuff writes with honesty and compassion about a city that's destroying itself--and breaking his heart."" -- ""Publishers Weekly (starred review)"" ""What to do when you're a reporter and your native city is rotting away? If you're LeDuff, you leave the New York Times and head into the wreckage to ride with firemen, hang with the corrupt pols, and retrace your own family's sad steps through drugs. Others have written well about the city, but none with the visceral anger, the hair-tearing frustration, and the hungry humanity of LeDuff."" -- ""Newsweek"" ""You wouldn't think a book about the stinking decay of the American dream could be this engaging, this irreverent, this laugh-at-loud funny. But not everyone can write like Charlie LeDuff. I'm tempted to say he's the writer for our desperate times the way Steinbeck and Orwell were for other people's desperate times, except he's such an original he's like no one but himself."" -- ""Alexandra Fuller, author of Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness and Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight"""

Author Information

Charlie LeDuff was a staff writer at the New York Times and a reporter at the Detroit News before he became a journalist for Detroit's FOX2 News. He contributed to a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times series and has received a Meyer Berger Award for distinguished writing about New York City. He is the author of US Guys and Work and Other Sins. Eric Martin is an Earphones Award-winning narrator. He has narrated many dozens of audiobooks in fiction and nonfiction. He is also the host and producer of the award-winning This American Wife, a popular podcast, and now web series, that features original comedy and stories, as well as interviews with authors such as Robert Greene and Amy Tan.

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