Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town (Paperback)
Winter 2011 Reading Group List
“You may find ourself talking and talking about this book to anyone who will listen! It draws a very poignant and fascinating portrait of what is undoubtedly the most dangerous drug in common use. Reding uses a small town in rural Iowa, profiling the 'players' in this socially crippling epidemic -- farmers, drug dealers, recovering addicts, the mayor, a local prosecutor, and a doctor. For all of its heartbreak, the book is not without hope as it examines one town's desperate fight to survive.”
— Maurine Barnett, Darvill's Bookstore, Eastsound, WA
A New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize
Winner of the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism
Named a best book of the year by:
the Los Angeles Times
the San Francisco Chronicle
the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch
the Chicago Tribune
the Seattle Times
"A stunning look at a problem that has dire consequences for our country.”-New York Post
The dramatic story of Methamphetamine as it comes to the American Heartland-a timely, moving, account of one community's attempt to confront the epidemic and see their way to a brighter future.
The bestselling book that launched meth back into the nation's consciousness. Based on Reding's four years of reporting in the agricultural town of Oelwein, Iowa, and tracing the connections to the global forces that set the stage for the meth epidemic, Methland offers a vital perspective on a contemporary tragedy. It is a portrait of a community under siege, of the lives that meth has devastated, and of the heroes who continue to fight the war.