"With a great reporter's narrative skill and the storytelling ability of a novelist, acclaimed journalist Sam Quinones weaves together two tales of capitalism catastrophically run amok. The unfettered prescribing of pain medications during the 1990s reached its peak in Purdue Pharma's campaign to market OxyContin, its new, expensive--extremely addictive--miracle painkiller. Meanwhile, a massive influx of black tar heroin--cheap, potent, and originating...

When Wittels Wachs's younger brother Harris died of a heroin overdose, she didn't know how to make sense of such a tragic end to a life of so much hilarious brilliance. Here she alternates between her brother's struggle with addiction, and the first year after his death. Even in all its emotional devastation, this exploration of the love between siblings will make you laugh, cry ... and wonder if that possum on the fence is really your brother's spirit...