Evicted

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. -- Aditya Chakrabortty * 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. -- Benjamin Markovits * 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 -- Ed Caesar * 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 -- Keith Kahn-Harris * 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 -- Jonathan Derbyshire * Financial Times * Astonishing ... Desmond has set a new standard for reporting on poverty -- Barbara Ehrenreich * 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 -- Katha Pollitt * Guardian *

Matthew Desmond is the Maurice P. During Professor of Sociology at Princeton and a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine. A MacArthur Fellow, Desmond is a leading expert on poverty, homelessness and public policy. His previous book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City reached millions of readers worldwide, won numerous awards - including the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award - and inspired significant changes in American public policy. Politico has named Desmond one of the 50 people across the United States who are most influencing the national debate.