“Want to know why America is fractured? Read Paper Girl, an indispensable account of how things got so ugly here. Beth Macy grew up poor, with an alcoholic dad, in Urbana, Ohio, yet through education she made the jump to the middle class. Returning to her homeplace, she probes the factors that make a move like hers almost unimaginable for the kids who sit in the same classrooms as she did. Heartfelt, intimate and enraging, it is more than a memoir; it’s a manifesto.” —Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Memorial Days

“A slew of books have attempted to reckon with the growing divide between urban and rural populations in the United States. Few do so as deftly as Beth Macy’s new book, Paper Girl . . . [Macy] toggles between personal narrative, history, and reportage to weave together a surprisingly moving account of how politics can rupture the personal . . . a cogent and thrilling story.” —The New Yorker

“How do you reach com­mon ground with those who want to burn it all down? Macy plants a hopeful stake in the vampiric heart of collective fear and apathy. Both wide-ranging and strikingly intimate, Paper Girl is an affirmation of faith in human­ity, and Macy lights the way ahead, even as the darkness stretched before us threatens to swallow our conviction.” —BookPage (starred review)

“Journalist and Dopesick author Macy poignantly interweaves her personal history with that of her decaying hometown in this perceptive account . . . Timely, clear-eyed, and empathetic, her insights provide a welcome salve for a festering social wound.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

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