RaveThe Washington PostExcellent ... Highly readable ... Egan is a meticulous researcher and, perhaps especially, a skilled storyteller ... A master class in the tools of narrative nonfiction: high stakes, ample suspense and sweeping historical phenomena made vivid through the dramatic actions of individual villains and heroes ... Well-crafted and thoughtful.
Tracy Kidder
RaveThe Washington PostExcellent ... As Kidder relays the stories of the women and men whom O’Connell and his colleagues serve, Rough Sleepers becomes a detailed portrait of the lives of homeless Americans. We hear about their backstories, their struggles, their hopes for the future. We come to understand their decisions to avoid shelters and the factors that conspire to deny them apartments of their own ... Kidder, to his credit, never gives short shrift to the larger context. He just asks us — correctly, I think — to consider that in a world of far too much cruelty, the compassionate person standing at the bottom of the cliff is part of the story too.
