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The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir
Contributor(s): Marzano-Lesnevich, Alex (Author)

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ISBN: 125008055X     ISBN-13: 9781250080554
Publisher: Flatiron Books
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Binding Type: Paperback - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: May 2018
Qty:
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- True Crime | Murder - General
- Family & Relationships | Abuse - Child Abuse
- Family & Relationships | Dysfunctional Families
Dewey: 364.152
LCCN: 2017003049
Lexile Measure: 900
Physical Information: 0.9" H x 5.4" W x 8.2" L (0.60 lbs) 336 pages
Features: Bibliography, Price on Product
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

Complex and challenging... push es] the boundaries of writing about trauma. --The New York Times
"A True Crime Masterpiece" - Vogue
Entertainment Weekly Must List and Best Books of the Year So Far
Real Simple's Best New Books
Guardian Best Book of the Year
Lambda Literary Award Winner
Chautauqua Prize Winner

The Fact of a Body is one of the best books I've read this year. It's just astounding.
-- Paula Hawkins, author of Into the Water and The Girl on the Train

This book is a marvel. The Fact of a Body is equal parts gripping and haunting and will leave you questioning whether any one story can hold the full truth. -- Celeste Ng, author of the New York Times bestselling Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere

Before Alex Marzano-Lesnevich begins a summer job at a law firm in Louisiana, working to help defend men accused of murder, they think their position is clear. The child of two lawyers, they are staunchly anti-death penalty. But the moment convicted murderer Ricky Langley's face flashes on the screen as they review old tapes--the moment they hear him speak of his crimes -- they are overcome with the feeling of wanting him to die. Shocked by their reaction, they dig deeper and deeper into the case. Despite their vastly different circumstances, something in his story is unsettlingly, uncannily familiar.

Crime, even the darkest and most unsayable acts, can happen to any one of us. As Alex pores over the facts of the murder, they find themself thrust into the complicated narrative of Ricky's childhood. And by examining the details of Ricky's case, they are forced to face their own story, to unearth long-buried family secrets, and reckon with a past that colors their view of Ricky's crime.

But another surprise awaits: They weren't the only one who saw their life in Ricky's.

An intellectual and emotional thriller that is also a different kind of murder mystery, THE FACT OF A BODY is a book not only about how the story of one crime was constructed -- but about how we grapple with our own personal histories. Along the way it tackles questions about the nature of forgiveness, and if a single narrative can ever really contain something as definitive as the truth. This groundbreaking, heart-stopping work, ten years in the making, shows how the law is more personal than we would like to believe -- and the truth more complicated, and powerful, than we could ever imagine.


Contributor Bio(s): Marzano-Lesnevich, Alexandria: - Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich is a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, an award given for her work on The Fact of a Body. She has received a Rona Jaffe Award and fellowships to the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. Her essays appear in the New York Times, Oxford American, and the anthology Waveform: Twenty-first Century Essays by Women. She lives in Boston, where she teaches at Grub Street and in the graduate public policy program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
 
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