Boston Book Festival 2018

Sometimes it is difficult to believe that people in positions of power are looking out for the public interest. In her amazing history of the opioid crisis, Dopesick, author Beth Macy traces the history of the epidemic, from the early days when Purdue Pharma put OxyContin on the market with dubious claims about its less addictive properties, to the present, when sympathy for those addicted to opioids may be plentiful but little funding for treatment is forthcoming, despite the predominance of the afflicted living in Trump country. Eve Ewing, in Ghosts in the Schoolyard, a “chilling must- read investigation of racism in Chicago’s education system” according to Foreword Reviews, asks what role race, power, and history played in the closing of 54 public schools in Chicago in 2013. The book offers a critique of the housing, education, and legal systems that contribute to the problem. This discussion of communities in distress will be led by Meghan Irons, reporter and City Hall Bureau Chief for the Boston Globe.