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Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

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The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir Kindle Edition

by Alex Marzano-Lesnevich (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.1 2,343 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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"Complex and challenging... push[es] the boundaries of writing about trauma." —The New York Times
“A True Crime Masterpiece” – Vogue
Entertainment Weekly "Must" List and Best Books of the Year So Far
Real Simple's Best New Books
Guardian Best Book of the Year
Lambda Literary Award Winner
Chautauqua Prize Winner

"The Fact of a Body is one of the best books I've read this year. It's just astounding."
— Paula Hawkins, author of Into the Water and The Girl on the Train

"This book is a marvel. The Fact of a Body is equal parts gripping and haunting and will leave you questioning whether any one story can hold the full truth." — Celeste Ng, author of the New York Times bestselling Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere

Before Alex Marzano-Lesnevich begins a summer job at a law firm in Louisiana, working to help defend men accused of murder, they think their position is clear. The child of two lawyers, they are staunchly anti-death penalty. But the moment convicted murderer Ricky Langley’s face flashes on the screen as they review old tapes—the moment they hear him speak of his crimes -- they are overcome with the feeling of wanting him to die. Shocked by their reaction, they dig deeper and deeper into the case. Despite their vastly different circumstances, something in his story is unsettlingly, uncannily familiar.

Crime, even the darkest and most unsayable acts, can happen to any one of us. As Alex pores over the facts of the murder, they find themself thrust into the complicated narrative of Ricky’s childhood. And by examining the details of Ricky’s case, they are forced to face their own story, to unearth long-buried family secrets, and reckon with a past that colors their view of Ricky's crime.

But another surprise awaits: They weren’t the only one who saw their life in Ricky’s.

An intellectual and emotional thriller that is also a different kind of murder mystery, THE FACT OF A BODY is a book not only about how the story of one crime was constructed -- but about how we grapple with our own personal histories. Along the way it tackles questions about the nature of forgiveness, and if a single narrative can ever really contain something as definitive as the truth. This groundbreaking, heart-stopping work, ten years in the making, shows how the law is more personal than we would like to believe -- and the truth more complicated, and powerful, than we could ever imagine.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Audible's Best of the Year 2017
Bustle's Best True Crime Books of 2017
LitHub's Best Crime Books of 2017
BookRiot's Best Books of 2017
New England Book Award 2017 Finalist
Entertainment Weekly "Must" List and Best Books of the Year So Far
Real Simple's Best New Books
Guardian Best Book of the Year
Lambda Literary Award Finalist

“A memoir/true-crime hybrid that stands up to the best of either genre, and will linger in your mind long after the last page.”
―Entertainment Weekly

“Marzano-Lesnevich, in her performance of hybridity ― “A Murder and a Memoir” ― is only doing what the best memoirists do: creating a book of fact and body,and speaking, in all their discord, as mother, father, and child.”
― LA Review of Books

“This is a nonfiction book you could give up novels for… Intertwines a riveting true crime story with a brave memoir, reminding us that facing the truth is our only option.”
―Redbook

“Utterly remarkable. It isn’t just that the writing can be beautiful… it isn’t just her coruscating honesty, it is that she understands how very partial the stories we tell ourselves are: the story of themselves that parents choose to tell their children as much as the stories that defence and prosecuting counsels create about events and people. Stories, she sees, are both essential and treacherous... Heroically accomplished.”
―The Times of London

“There are echoes of In Cold Blood in this haunting story…A gothic mixture of memoir and true crime, The Fact of a Body is full of secrets that don’t want to stay buried, that are forced to the surface despite all attempts to keep them submerged… Bold, disquieting… True crime that feels true.”
―The Sunday Times of London

“Dream-stippled prose, at once sharp with beauty and lush with horror.”
―The Boston Globe

“The superb writing and story-telling keep luring you back. Marzano-Lesnevich writes with a beautifully deft one-two-three punch of grace, power and raw emotion.”
―The Buffalo News

"This book is a marvel. With unflinching precision and immense compassion, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich peels apart both a murder case and her own experience to reveal how we try to make sense of the past. The Fact of a Body is equal parts gripping and haunting and will leave you questioning whether any one story can hold the full truth."
―Celeste Ng, author of the New York Times bestselling Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere

“A fascinating hybrid of true crime and memoir, The Fact of a Body is intricately constructed, emotionally raw, and unflinching. Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich has written a gripping meditation on memory, justice, and the limits of empathy.”
―Tom Perrotta

"The Fact of a Body is unlike any murder story I've ever read, a masterpiece of both reportage and memoir, a book that could only be written by an author with Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich's staggering gifts: a relentless reporter with a law degree from Harvard, a poet's understanding of the cadence of a line, and a novelist's gift for empathy. Walter Benjamin famously said that all great works of art either dissolve a genre or invent one. This book does both, and its greatness is undeniable."
―Justin St. Germain, author of Son of a Gun

"The Fact of a Body is remarkable act of witness, an anatomy of silence and the violence it abets, a book of both public and private accountings. Rejecting the false comfort of certainty, it confronts the inadequacy of all our tools for fathoming not just unforgivable crimes, but the baffling, human grace that can forgive them. This is a profound and riveting book."
― Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You

"The balancing act here performed between autobiography and journalism, documentary and imagination, witnessing and reckoning, the tender and the terrible, is shrewd and graceful. In the hands of a lesser human or writer, it could have all fallen apart; instead, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich has given us an exquisite and exquisitely difficult work of art that makes a fierce claim on our attention, conscience, and heart."
― Maggie Nelson, author of the NBCC award-winning Argonauts

"Haunting...impeccably researched...Her writing is remarkably evocative and taut with suspense, with a level of nuance that sets this effort apart from other true crime accounts."
―Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“An accomplished literary debut…an absorbing narrative about secrets, pain, revenge, and, ultimately, the slippery notion of truth…A powerful evocation of the raw pain of emotional scars.”
―Kirkus

"Compulsive, eloquent and profoundly troubling. One of those rare books which embrace the genuine complexity of life."
― Mark Haddon, bestselling author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

“The writing is superb and gripping…a moving must-have.”
―Library Journal, starred review

“Surprising, suspenseful, and moving…A book that defies both its genres, turning into something wholly different and memorable.”
―Booklist, starred review

“Haunting… Marzano-Lesnevich digs into one case that begins to feel oddly familiar, and eventually is forced to confront her understanding of justice, forgiveness, and truth.”
―BuzzFeed

“THE FACT OF A BODY is excellent. So gripping and fascinating.”
―Sophie Hannah, New York Times bestselling author of The Monogram Murders

“Suspenseful and spellbinding.”
―Bustle

Audible Best Books of the Year (So Far)

About the Author

Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich is a 2014 National Endowment for the Arts fellow, an award given for her work on The Fact of a Body. She has received a Rona Jaffe Award and fellowships to the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. Her essays appear in the New York Times, Oxford American, and the anthology Waveform: Twenty-first Century Essays by Women. She lives in Boston, where she teaches at Grub Street and in the graduate public policy program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01M3TZGCL
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Flatiron Books (May 16, 2017)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 16, 2017
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2523 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 338 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #521,645 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #281 in LGBTQ+ Biographies & Memoirs
- #473 in Lawyer & Judge Biographies
- #570 in Child Abuse (Books)

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4.1 2,343 ratings

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Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

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Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich is the author of THE FACT OF A BODY: A Murder and a Memoir, named an Indie Next Pick and one of the most anticipated books of 2017 by Buzzfeed, BookRiot, and the Huffington Post as well as a must-read for May by Goodreads, Audible.com, Entertainment Weekly, and Real Simple. The book was published May 16th in the US and May 18th in the UK, to be followed by the Netherlands, Turkey, Korea, Taiwan, France, Spain, and Greece. The recipient of fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, and Yaddo, and a Rona Jaffe Award, Marzano-Lesnevich lives in Boston, where she teaches at Grub Street and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

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Lisa Ellison

Memoir that reads like true crime you can't put down.

Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2021

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If you haven’t read The Fact of a Body, go buy a copy of this book. If you’re a writer and you’ve read the book once, go back and read it again. The experience is like taking a class. The closer you read, the more you learn about the craft of writing creative nonfiction.

While the content can be difficult (trigger warning on pedophilia), Alexandria Marzano -Lesnevich grabs us with their incredible storytelling and doesn’t let go. This story reads like a murder mystery you can’t put down. The structure is brilliant. The scene writing is elegant. Every beat is masterfully executed. Each sentence is a work of art.

I recently found out that the book has been picked up by HBO and will be turned into a mini-series. I can’t wait to reread then watch then reread this book.

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Desert Mambo

This is book is a memoir, NOT true crime. And it's a damn good one.

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2018

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First, I'm disturbed by so many bad reviews of this book, reviews that are clearly based in a lack of understanding of genre. This book is NOT A TRUE CRIME book. Period. If you're looking for that, don't buy it or read it. So many people talk about how it doesn't move quickly, or how do the two stories connect (they do, for thoughtful readers, and the writer makes that so evident that I can only assume some reviewers either didn't really read the book carefully or simply ignored the clear connections the author is making. Her entire point here is that through exploring the horrible death of a boy, she learns to explore her own trauma.) I have no interest in "true crime" myself, which has, to me, always felt ugly and voyeuristic: people reading about other people's pain for entertainment. Other people might feel quite differently about it, but that's my take. This book does explore an only tangentially connected case, a murder case that author first encountered as a law intern. The case is a way for her to explore her own trauma and history, and she does both exceptionally well.

What she does well: this is probably one of the best representations of PTSD and the effects of childhood trauma from sexual abuse that I've ever read. It is so well done, in fact, that I had to put it down several times, so content warnings for those who have survived similar trauma: this book is very difficult to read at times. That said, reading through it, sometimes tense in my chair, I started to understand my own reactions, even the reactions I was having as I read it. I think others who have suffered trauma, especially sexual abuse as a child, will find much of value in this book, even as it is difficult. Also, I did not want to have sympathy for the murderer in this book. As the author clearly states, neither did she. She wanted him to die. I did too. And yet, she manages to do something I certainly could not: she explores his life in obsessive detail and she presents a complex picture of a man who did horrible horrible things. And yet, she makes him human. She tries, also to do this with her grandfather, and I think it is clear that part of the book is about exploring what it means to be a person who could do this sort of thing to a child. She has no answers for us. There are no answers. But her strength and tenacity in trying to unravel why these things happen is amazing.

Yes, the book is quite detailed, thoughtful, working often on a metaphoric level. It is a literary book. A memoir. It means to do that. There were times I wondered at the sheer level of detail, but as a reader and writer I also appreciated it: the writer was also quite clear on when she was imagining things (such as putting the killer's mother in a housedress of the style her own grandmother wore), and when she took information from sources she had seen. Other than the level of detail, which sometimes even put me off, and I generally like it, I have no complaints: this book was intelligently written, carefully and beautifully structured, and in the end, terribly human. I am in awe of this writer who could manage to stick with this investigation into the life of a man that most of us don't want to think of at all--a convicted pedophile and child killer. But here's the thing: if we stay silent (as some reviews have suggested), then other children get hurt. If we stay silent, we never have a hope of understanding how someone comes to do these terrible things, and without understanding that, how can we ever stop it? Certainly what we are doing now is not working--children are abused every day. Some of us have the strength and courage to eventually tell our own stories. And some, like this amazing author, have the courage to tell both her own story and the story of an abuser (welll, two in her case). I applaud her, and difficult as this book was for me to read--and it was--I feel I am further along on my journey of dealing with childhood sexual abuse from reading this book.

Thank you to the author. You have really done something amazing with this book.

98 people found this helpful

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Diana S

A Memoir

Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2020

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Lovely writing. Really beautiful. I feel for this woman and her ordeal as a child. I didn’t quite understand her fixation with Rick and the murder. Other than he was a pedophile. I could have lived without reading this book.

3 people found this helpful

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carilynp

for having the courage to explore such a difficult subject that must have been painful with every single piece of research that

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2017

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The writing is exceptional and slowly, as I got really into the book, I discovered that the subject was one in which I, as I am sure many others do, have a very difficult time reading. The author has woven her own story about having been molested as a child, by a family member, alongside a true crime story that she researched as a young law student, about a man, who was a pedophile, involved in a murder.

The two stories are so intense, that although, both hard to read, I became engrossed in the reactions of her family as well as the town’s, to this criminal, his family’s as well as the length that the trials went on, and on.

The book is beyond a memoir. It combines true crime, with the author’s imagined scenarios of what went on in various courtroom settings during the trials and how she follows this man’s crime as well as the victim to understand what was done to her, and ultimately to free herself of her haunting past.

It is brave, scary, revealing, and a look into a world that you would otherwise not know. I commend her for her diligence, for confronting her family, for writing this book, for having the courage to explore such a difficult subject that must have been painful with every single piece of research that she did and every single word that she wrote. This book will leave you thinking about hard issues about our legal system, mental health treatment, the death penalty, and familial responsibility.

To read about other people’s situations that you might otherwise never know, despite their outward appearance, their present success, is eye-opening. To know what they have overcome and how they have done so, is remarkable.

94 people found this helpful

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lauren

Beautifully and compassionately written

Reviewed in Canada on May 20, 2018

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As I read the reviews by others, I feel my own words don't do justice to this incredible story. Beautifully and compassionately written, with such raw emotion it is almost painful at times to read.

I agree with every single review I read. This is an exceptional book that took enormous courage to write.

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fact of a body

Reviewed in France on August 28, 2019

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Génial !!!

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Barryhargadon

Simply brilliant

Reviewed in Spain on December 29, 2018

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Tender, thought provoking and gripping. So many different ways to try to explain the unexplainable. I was dreading coming to the end and stand in awe of such a talented writer.

Anna Roche

Interesting

Reviewed in Italy on June 19, 2017

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The murder story was much less interesting to me than the author's own story. I wish she had simply stuck with her own history with perhaps about 1/4 of the murder story. Well-written and engrossing in part, however.

a.khare

Searing and Incisive ...

Reviewed in India on May 30, 2017

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A brutal and brave memoir by the author . She was compelled to pen this book when she came across the case of Ricky Langley, a pedophile during a law job. His demeanor and the support exhibited by his family and eventually even by the victim's mother made her want to go deep within the story and find answers for the 'why'. It also triggered her own memories of her childhood and made her look hard at aspects of her own family and secrets harboured . She excels in weaving both the narratives and doesn't spare anyone, even herself. It is very uncommon to divulge into one's life to the extent that she has and find answers and seek closure which she attempts in her life and the murder. At some places I felt she is being very harsh. To emphasize certain facts there is a lot of repetition which could have been avoided.

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