Man in the mirror hope, struggle, and belonging in an American city

"In 2023, New York City emerged from the COVID pandemic licking its wounds: Subway crime was spiking, public trust in law enforcement was waning, and the city's unhoused and mentally ill populations languished in the face of inadequate services. In this combustible moment, the lives of two men-Jorda...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Giridharadas, Anand (Author)
Format: Books Print Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2026.
Edition:First hardcover edition.
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Summary:"In 2023, New York City emerged from the COVID pandemic licking its wounds: Subway crime was spiking, public trust in law enforcement was waning, and the city's unhoused and mentally ill populations languished in the face of inadequate services. In this combustible moment, the lives of two men-Jordan Neely, a 31-year-old man who'd become known for his Michael Jackson impersonations on subway platforms, and Daniel Penny, an ex-Marine who saw himself as a vigilante for an endangered city-intersected tragically in a New York subway car. In Man in the Mirror, acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Anand Giridharadas tells the riveting story of this deadly encounter and its aftermath, which laid bare the fissures-about race, class, crime, and community-plaguing America's largest city against a backdrop of deep national polarization. Drawing on extensive on-the-ground reporting, Man in the Mirror narrates the days, weeks, and months that followed Neely's death through the shifting perspectives of a vast cast of characters: attorneys, politicians, community workers, loved ones on both sides of the crime. In weaving these individual experiences into a vivid, immersive narrative tapestry, Giridharadas delivers human dimension and complexity to a chapter of American history that has been so often served up as divisive clickbait. Man in the Mirror is a tour de force of narrative reporting and an account of our fraught times that is at once panoramic in its scope and finely detailed in its emotional immediacy. It is essential reading for our ongoing efforts to take care of each other and live up to our own civic and moral ideals"-- Provided by publisher.
Item Description:Includes index.
Physical Description:viii, 464 pages ; 24 cm
ISBN:9780593802014
0593802012
Author Notes:Anand Giridharadas is a writer, teacher, political analyst, and speaker, based in Brooklyn, New York. His career includes foreign correspondent and columnist for The New York Times (2005-2016), has written for The Atlantic, The New Republic, and The New Yorker, an Aspen Institute fellow, on-air political analyst for MSNBC, former McKinsey analyst, and teaches journalism at New York University. He is the author of The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation's Remaking, and Winner Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World.

(Bowker Author Biography)