Raising Lazarus, Beth Macy
Raising Lazarus, Beth Macy
3 Rating(s)
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Raising Lazarus
Hope, Justice, and the Future of America's Overdose Crisis

Author: Beth Macy

Narrator: Beth Macy

Unabridged: 10 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/16/2022


Synopsis

A “deeply reported, deeply moving” (Patrick Radden Keefe) account of everyday heroes fighting on the front lines of the overdose crisis, from the New York Times bestselling author of Dopesick (inspiration for the Peabody Award-winning Hulu limited series) and Factory Man.

Nearly a decade into the second wave of America's overdose crisis, pharmaceutical companies have yet to answer for the harms they created. As pending court battles against opioid makers, distributors, and retailers drag on, addiction rates have soared to record-breaking levels during the COVID pandemic, illustrating the critical need for leadership, urgency, and change. Meanwhile, there is scant consensus between law enforcement and medical leaders, nor an understanding of how to truly scale the programs that are out there, working at the ragged edge of capacity and actually saving lives.

Distilling this massive, unprecedented national health crisis down to its character-driven emotional core as only she can, Beth Macy takes us into the country’s hardest hit places to witness the devastating personal costs that one-third of America's families are now being forced to shoulder. Here we meet the ordinary people fighting for the least of us with the fewest resources, from harm reductionists risking arrest to bring lifesaving care to the homeless and addicted to the activists and bereaved families pushing to hold Purdue and the Sackler family accountable. These heroes come from all walks of life; what they have in common is an up-close and personal understanding of addiction that refuses to stigmatize—and therefore abandon—people who use drugs, as big pharma execs and many politicians are all too ready to do. 

Like the treatment innovators she profiles, Beth Macy meets the opioid crisis where it is—not where we think it should be or wish it was. Bearing witness with clear eyes, intrepid curiosity, and unfailing empathy, she brings us the crucial next installment in the story of the defining disaster of our era, one that touches every single one of us, whether directly or indirectly. A complex story of public health, big pharma, dark money, politics, race, and class that is by turns harrowing and heartening, infuriating and inspiring, Raising Lazarus is a must-read for all Americans.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Gloria on October 11, 2022

As someone who works on a nearly daily basis with addiction, overdoses, heroin, etc., I was interested in a story that might bring a "human element" to the heroin addiction problem in the US. I was hoping for more of a personal account from all perspectives of people that touch this problem - which......more

Goodreads review by Rennie on August 19, 2022

An incredible work of compassion, on Macy's part to chronicle this and of all the people who are doing what they can in harm reduction work to help community members who have been horribly failed by medical professionals, big pharma, the government, law enforcement, and anyone else who could've poin......more

Goodreads review by Penelope on May 05, 2022

Raising Lazarus follows the people with boots on the ground in the opioid crisis—the volunteers, advocates, families, and survivors fighting to save lives and heal broken and battered communities. Beth Macy digs deep into their struggles and reveals the terrible toll of the epidemic with a caring an......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on October 18, 2022

I read Dopesick in early 2019 and it was an extremely eye-opening look at how the opioid epidemic was created and encouraged by Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. While Dopesick looks at how this whole thing started, Raising Lazarus is supposed to be about "hope, justice, and the future of Americ......more

Goodreads review by Hillary on June 16, 2022

No one is covering the opioid/overdose epidemic in America as thoroughly or as compassionately as Beth Macy. This book continues the work she began in Dopesick. Macy alternates between the stories of the lawyers and families trying to hold Purdue and the Sackler family accountable for the epidemic o......more


Quotes

“When the Covid epidemic seized the headlines, America's overdose epidemic did not go away; in fact, it intensified. Beth Macy is one of the great chroniclers of how we got here and where we are headed. RAISING LAZARUS is a necessary companion to the urgent story she told in DOPESICK, a deeply reported, deeply moving, boots on the ground picture of what the crisis of addiction is doing to our country, and of the activists and ordinary people who are working to fight it. In that respect, this is a surprisingly hopeful book, the tale of a catastrophic crisis, but also of profound compassion and the resilience of the human spirit.”
 —Patrick Radden Keefe, bestselling author of Empire of Pain

"As if we needed one more reminder of Beth Macy's phenomenal narrative journalism, RAISING LAZARUS takes us to the front lines of the fight for the nation's health. Macy finds unfamiliar heroes in places most of us would lack the will or imagination to explore. It is Macy's commitment to defamiliarizing the opioid epidemic that has, strangely and thankfully, helped so many Americans understand that none of our families are alone in this brutally pervasive fight for our lives."—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy

"Macy brings her empathetic reporter's craft to the oft-ignored problem solvers on the ground---those who, as Macy writes, didn't wait around for justice. Macy didn't either. Unlike so many laws, court decisions, and news stories, Raising Lazarus does right by the victims of the opioid crisis"—Sarah Smarsh, New York Times bestselling author of Heartland

"Raising Lazarus confirms Beth Macy’s status as America's nonfiction laureate of the opioid crisis. This book is a force of inspiration that will make you believe not in miracles but in work – the sheer innovative, determined, empathic work of ordinary Americans. They are shifting the rightful place of shame from drug users to drugmakers."—Evan Osnos, New York Times bestselling author of Wildland

“If Dopesick illuminated the hidden world of opioid addiction, Raising Lazarus puts it under a microscope, showing us what we can do socially, politically, and personally to curb it. It is a book of profound human connection, filled with stories of those determined to save their communities no matter the cost. Macy refuses to let us look away from this urgent, Sisyphean task. Raising Lazarus is humbling, dazzling and infused with hope. Beth Macy is, quite literally, a life saver.”—Rachel Louise Snyder, author of No Visible Bruises

“Beth Macy has done it again. Her clear-sighted, deeply humane reporting takes readers to the front lines of the opioid crisis, where a grassroots network of brave activists work to defy stigma, save lives and hold power to account in the long shadow of the Sackler dynasty. This is potent, essential storytelling and a much-needed reminder of our common humanity that points, ultimately, towards hope.”—Jessica Bruder, author of Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

“Beth Macy is America’s indispensable guide to the opioid epidemic. She brings great humanity and unparalleled storytelling to her work. Through her, the horrors of opioids are better known but, as this update makes clear, the suffering goes on. We owe her a great debt.”—Anne Case and Angus Deaton, New York Times bestselling authors of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

This essential book is a beautifully crafted work of nonfiction literature, propelled by fierce compassion and a yearning for justice. Beth Macy has an extraordinary gift for encapsulating our nation’s greatest challenges in gripping, intimate, and wise stories of everyday American struggles. RAISING LAZARUS is at once an unblinking and masterful diagnosis of the root causes of our historic overdose crisis and an inspiring and hopeful call to action. Not to be missed."—Carl Erik Fisher, author of The Urge: Our History of Addiction

"Through brilliant prose and journalistic genius, Beth Macy once again opens our hearts and takes us inside the battle to end America’s overdose crisis. RAISING LAZARUS is a coming home story for many of us on the frontlines—a masterfully written, well researched, honest, and hopeful account like no other. Macy’s storytelling is unmatched and translates our experiences into a literary masterpiece—offering a prescriptive path forward to curb this national health crisis."
 —Ryan Hampton, person in recovery from addiction, national advocate, and author of Unsettled and American Fix

"Macy's harrowing account of the opioid epidemic in which hundreds of thousands have already died masterfully interlaces stories of communities in crisis with dark histories of corporate greed and regulatory indifference." -praise for Dopesick
 —New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice