A NEW YORK TIMES MOST NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020.
LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN AMERICA JEAN STEIN AWARD “which recognizes a book-length work of any genre for its originality, merit, and impact, which has broken new ground by reshaping the boundaries of its form and signaling strong potential for lasting influence.”
SHORTLISTED FOR THE LUKAS PRIZE.
“Riveting… ‘This Is All I Got’ is a testament to the bigness of the small story, to the power of intimate narratives to speak to something much larger… I relished my time alongside Camila… Sandler’s such a keen observer, her writing so cleareyed.” — Alex Kotlowitz, The New York Times Book Review
“A passionate cri de Coeur… Camila’s story is both uniquely her own and illustrative of the grindingly dictatorial public assistance programs that are determined not to assist.” — The New York Review of Books
“Lauren Sandler wrote *the* book about poverty in America…an intimate illustration of the gutting inequalities that define the American social service system.” — In Style
“Left me breathless.” — Los Angeles Review of Books
“Great…vivid…So powerful.” — Salon
“Forthright… a window into the American underclass.” — National Review
“Stunning… shook up my inherited assumptions about racial injustice.” — Jewish Week
“Engaging and moving… Heartbreaking, inspiring and infuriating, all at once.” — Minnesota Star Tribune
“Harrowing, heartbreaking and riveting.” — The Trentonian
“A rich, sociologically valuable work that's more gripping, and more devastating, than fiction.” — Booklist
“Vivid, heartbreaking. Readers will be moved by this harrowing and impassioned call for change.” — Publisher’s Weekly
“An impressive blend of dispassionate reporting, pungent condemnation of public welfare, and gritty humanity.” — Kirkus
“A striking capsule of journalism that narratively factualizes poverty and homelessness in the United States through humanizing individuals much of society chooses to forget.” — Superstition Review
“Both a celebration of Camila — and the many mothers like her — and a call to action to improve our social safety net, this is a book that will linger with you long after the last page.” — A Mighty Girl
“Too few journalists put the time in to allow the working poor and homeless to be heard, speaking clearly about their pitfalls and occasional triumphs, in their own words: Sandler has achieved this with skill.” –Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America
"By writing the intimate story of a woman alone making a life for herself and her baby, Lauren Sandler has brilliantly written the story of America in the age of inequality. Read this book, please - it is as gripping as it is moving as it is important.” –Darren Walker, President, The Ford Foundation
“An absorbing portrayal of a resourceful, driven, brilliant young woman — down and out in the richest country in the world. Sandler has written a book that reads like a novel, which only makes her indictment of dwindling affordability and the public assistance bureaucracy all the more penetrating.” –Ayad Akhtar, Pulitzer Prize-Winning author of Homeland Elegies and President of PEN America
"Meticulously crafted and brilliantly reported, Lauren Sandler’s This Is All I Got exposes the Kafkaesque cruelties of America’s disintegrating social safety net. It is a gut-punch of a narrative, an electrifying summons to policy action, and an instant classic."–Dan-el Padilla Peralta, author of Undocumented: A Dominican Boy's Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League
“What a sad, enraging, endearing, amazing book. It made me want to ask Camila, How do you keep going? And it made me want to ask Lauren Sandler the same thing: How did you stick with her over these many months? A timely and empathetic act of journalism, brimming with moral conundra and posing an urgent and implicit question: How could we do better for this mother? How could we do better for this child?” –Ted Conover, author of Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing
“This is the very human story of a single family that at the same time is the broad and important story about the ravages of inequality in this country. This is also a book you cannot put down: Lauren Sandler’s remarkable, intimate reporting and her lyrical, specific prose shine.”–Alissa Quart, author of Squeezed: Why Our Families Can’t Afford America
"A stunning portrait of homelessness in America, and an unforgettable account of one mother's quest to find shelter in the contemporary city. This is All I Got is an urgent, myth-shattering book about what happens when we refuse to deal with urban poverty. Read it, share it, don't let the story disappear." –Eric Klinenberg, author of Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life