Why read Detroit?

Book cover of Detroit: An American Autopsy

Book description

An explosive expose of America's lost prosperity by Pulitzer Prize -winning journalist Charlie LeDuff

"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…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Detroit as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Drew Philp

Author

Love him or hate him, it’s undeniable that LeDuff is a tremendously charismatic writer. A Pulitzer Prize winner, a breathtaking reporter, and a denizen of Detroit for decades, this is one of the most compellingly written books on Detroit ever.

This book has a Mustang eight-cylinder engine on it, and I hoovered this up over just a couple of hours. If you want a barn-burning page-turner of a tale, showcasing Detroit as its most broken and beautiful, this is the one for you.

From Drew's list on The best books about why Detroit is the most interesting city in the US.

Zachary Petit

Author

If there is a spiritual successor to Hunter S. Thompson, it’s LeDuff, whose blood pumps gonzo. As Publishers Weekly poignantly put it in a starred review, “Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist LeDuff writes with honesty and compassion about a city that’s destroying itself—and breaking his heart.” Seeking to make sense of his hometown, LeDuff gets his hands dirty—and returns to the page to document it with the gripping bravado of a barroom brawler.

From Zachary's list on The best books to read if you want to learn how to write nonfiction like a motherfu*ker.