Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America

This is a best-selling book about working-class life in one small Ohio town 40 years ago and now, and the history of that one town reveals a fractured American landscape that is widespread but seldom seen. Beth Macy grew up in Urbana, Ohio, and was a paper girl delivering the daily newspaper to people’s homes. In doing so, she widened her world by knowing the town so well, and she uses those memories to tell the story of her family and town. It was never a bed of roses, but in returning 40 years after she left and became a distinguished journalist, it is devastating to see the decay that has happened and is happening to the place and people she loves.