Author Description

<p><b>Winner of the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction</b></p><p>Named on Amazon's Best Books of the Year 2015--Michael Botticelli, U.S. Drug Czar (<i>Politico</i>) Favorite Book of the Year--Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize Economics (<i>Bloomberg</i>/<i>WSJ</i>) Best Books of 2015--Matt Bevin, Governor of Kentucky (<i>WSJ</i>) Books of the Year--Slate.coms 10 Best Books of 2015--<i>Entertainment Weekly</i>s 10 Best Books of 2015 --Buzzfeeds 19 Best Nonfiction Books of 2015--The Daily Beasts Best Big Idea Books of 2015--<i>Seattle Times</i> Best Books of 2015--<i>Boston Globe</i>s Best Books of 2015--<i>St. Louis Post-Dispatch</i>s Best Books of 2015--<i>The Guardian</i>s The Best Book We Read All Year--Audibles Best Books of 2015--<i>Texas Observer</i>s Five Books We Loved in 2015--Chicago Public Librarys Best Nonfiction Books of 2015</p><p><b>From a small town in Mexico to the boardrooms of Big Pharma to main streets nationwide, an explosive and shocking account of addiction in the heartland of America.</b></p><p>In 1929, in the blue-collar city of Portsmouth, Ohio, a company built a swimming pool the size of a football field; named Dreamland, it became the vital center of the community. Now, addiction has devastated Portsmouth, as it has hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across America--addiction like no other the country has ever faced. How that happened is the riveting story of <i>Dreamland</i>. </p><p>With a great reporters narrative skill and the storytelling ability of a novelist, acclaimed journalist Sam Quinones weaves together two classic tales of capitalism run amok whose unintentional collision has been catastrophic. The unfettered prescribing of pain medications during the 1990s reached its peak in Purdue Pharmas campaign to market OxyContin, its new, expensive--extremely addictive--miracle painkiller. Meanwhile, a massive influx of black tar heroin--cheap, potent, and originating from one small county on Mexicos west coast, independent of any drug ca