Man in the Mirror

“In Man in the Mirror, Anand Giridharadas traces a legal battle that set safety and order for the majority against protection and care for the neediest. He writes with sympathy for both sides, recognizing despair among the advantaged and the powerless. This book’s moral complexity feels especially urgent as polarization threatens to undermine territory far beyond Giridharadas’s central narrative. This is a brave volume, profoundly researched, beautifully written, moving, and deeply felt.” 

—Andrew Solomon, New York Times bestselling author of Far From the Tree and The Noonday Demon, a National Book Award Winner and Pulitzer Prize Finalist 

“Man in the Mirror is a gripping American tragedy—a profoundly human story of systemic failures, unequal judicial access, and the complexity of mental health care and individual choice. Anand Giridharadas captures how when rugged individualism, neoliberalism, and populism collide, people struggle to see each other until it is too late. Giridharadas is a powerful and compassionate writer of extraordinary conviction. This is a tremendous achievement.” 

—Min Jin Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko, a National Book Award Finalist 

“Like the very finest works of narrative nonfiction, Man in the Mirror is both riveting and deeply moving. Anand Giridharadas was on the ground from the very first days after the death of Jordan Neely and tirelessly and empathically followed the sprawling cast of characters involved through the verdict and its aftermath. In his deft hands, the tragic collision of an ex-Marine and a mentally ill homeless man on an uptown F train becomes a profound, lyrical meditation on the chasms dividing not only New York but all of America. It’s hard to imagine a more timely book, or a more timeless one.”

—Jonathan Mahler, author of The Gods of New York

“Man in the Mirror is a deeply sobering reminder of all that is lost when a nation writes off its most vulnerable citizens as but a threat. A page-turner and a powerful wake-up call.”

—Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water and Fear and Fury

“Man in the Mirror is a map: Anand Giridharadas’s panoramic reporting on the death of Jordan Neely charts not only the forces of how systems operate in a city, but how individual people bring us closer to our common humanity—or pull us away from it. You can find so much of what you need to know here—and much more, depending on how brightly you want to shine the light.”

—Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, author of Random Family

“Man in the Mirror is the kind of humane, deeply reported, morally complex nonfiction that deserves to be called novelistic. It illuminates a world that was always right in front of me but I might not have wanted to see. Now I can’t forget it.”

—George Packer, National Book Award-winning author of The Unwinding

“Man in the Mirror is a crisply written and compelling journalistic deep dive—into the internecine politics in which the killing of Jordan Neely was used to advance other agendas, the many social institutions that were unable to help save Neely’s troubled life, and a country at war with itself.”

—Richard Price, author of Lush Life