First published 2010
David Maraniss brings together thirty-two stories that move between the grand stage of American history and the quiet moments of personal reckoning. A veteran journalist sits in a hotel room, wrestling with memories of wars covered and lives witnessed. He recalls standing in crowds during pivotal historical moments, then shifts to intimate scenes of family dinners and childhood summers. The stories jump from political campaigns to high school football games, from newsrooms buzzing with deadline energy to hospital waiting rooms heavy with silence. Each piece reveals how public events shape private lives and how small personal moments echo larger truths. Maraniss draws on decades of reporting to create fiction that feels lived rather than imagined. The collection explores what it means to bear witness, both as a journalist and as a human being navigating loss and memory.
Genres: american-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, journalism
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-Century, 21st-Century
309 pages · Kindle Edition · Simon & Schuster