Paper Girl

A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America

De: Beth Macy

Narrado por: Beth Macy

An Instant National Bestseller!

"There couldn’t be a timelier book . . . searingly poignant, essential . . . Macy follows closely in the footsteps of . . . Barbara Ehrenreich and Tracy Kidder, combining memoir with reportage, a raft of sobering statistics and, most uniquely in our era, a willingness to engage in uncomfortable conversations." —The Washington Post

From one of our most acclaimed chroniclers of the forces eroding America’s social fabric, her most personal and powerful work: a reckoning with the changes that have rocked her own beloved small Ohio hometown

Urbana, Ohio, was not a utopia when Beth Macy grew up there in the ’70s and ’80s—certainly not for her family. Her dad was known as the town drunk, which hurt, as did their poverty. But Urbana had a healthy economy and thriving schools, and Macy had middle-class schoolmates whose families became her role models. Though she left for college on a Pell Grant and then a faraway career in journalism, she still clung gratefully to the place that had helped raise her.

But as Macy’s mother’s health declined in 2020, she couldn’t shake the feeling that her town had dramatically hardened. Macy had grown up as the paper girl, delivering the local newspaper, which was the community’s civic glue. Now she found scant local news and precious little civic glue. Yes, much of the work that once supported the middle class had gone away, but that didn’t begin to cover the forces turning Urbana into a poorer and angrier place. Absenteeism soared in the schools and in the workplace as a mental health crisis gripped the small city. Some of her old friends now embraced conspiracies. In nearby Springfield, Macy watched as her ex-boyfriend—once the most liberal person she knew—became a lead voice of opposition against the Haitian immigrants, parroting false talking points throughout the 2024 presidential campaign.

This was not an assignment Beth Macy had ever imagined taking on, but after her mother’s death, she decided to figure out what happened to Urbana in the forty years since she’d left. The result is an astonishing book that, by taking us into the heart of one place, brings into focus our most urgent set of national issues.


Paper Girl is a gift of courage, empathy, and insight. Beth Macy has turned to face the darkness in her family and community, people she loves wholeheartedly, even the ones she sometimes struggles to like. And in facing the truth—in person, with respect—she has found sparks of human dignity that she has used to light a signal fire of warning but also of hope.

Made me think and understand

Very helpful in these times to help see the unseen people whose lives and desperation, for understandable reasons, lead them to see politics as they do. Democrats like me can benefit from this revelation.

Extremely elucidating and listenable

Being a liberal humanist I form opinions less from personal experience than the experience of others and those experiences have become expressed with so much digital distortion I have become numbed and distrustful of most media. This book was of course disturbing, but so refreshing in its thorough honesty, intelligence, compassion, scholarly integrity, and not to diminish its seriousness, great readability , I listened straight through. The writing so concisely described what I know intellectually but not personally and allowed through the conversations and experiences of people close to the author, greater context for this frightening era of disillusionment. .

Interesting read

I also grew up in Ohio. It was an interesting study of how Americans, especially rural Americans attitudes have changed over the last several decades. The author provides a very personal view from her hometown.

Really good, albeit depressing

I hated Dope Sick but decided to give Macy another chance. Glad I did. This was so very good, if not totally depressing. Part memoir, part journalism, part a portrait of her hometown. She combines them all in a really interesting story!

Facts and insight

I learned so much from this book and appreciate all of the insight that got us to this sad time in American history.

Great read for understanding how we got here!

This book really captures the why and how of America today. Through the lens of her own life and family, Macy gently guides us into an understanding of the importance of education. Connection and honest reporting to try to break a cycle of the impoverished and those who have felt forgotten. Let’s hope we are not too late!

Brilliant book!

Fantasticly written and performed. Such an important read for our time! I’d recommend it for everyone.