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A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention
by Matt Richtel
In this ambitious, compelling, and beautifully written book, Matt Richtel, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the New York Times, examines the impact of technology on our lives through the story of Utah college student Reggie Shaw, who killed two scientists while texting and driving. Richtel follows Reggie through the tragedy, the police investigation, his prosecution, and ultimately, his redemption.
In the wake of his experience, Reggie has become a leading advocate against "distracted driving." Richtel interweaves Reggie's story with cutting-edge scientific findings regarding human attention and the impact of technology on our brains, proposing solid, practical, and actionable solutions to help manage this crisis individually and as a society.
A propulsive read filled with fascinating, accessible detail, riveting narrative tension, and emotional depth, A Deadly Wandering explores one of the biggest questions of our time - what is all of our technology doing to us? - and provides unsettling and important answers and information we all need.
"Starred Review. Comprehensive research underlies this compelling, highly emotional and profoundly important story." - Kirkus
"The author's determination to juice up the science with human interest, emotional anguish, and courtroom drama feels overdone - many figures in the book have their back stories ransacked for extraneous episodes of trauma and abuse. Still, when Richtel lets the research speak for itself, he raises fascinating and troubling issues about the cognitive impact of our technology." - Publishers Weekly
"Americans are addicted to their technology, putting us on a modern day collision course with very real consequences. Matt Richtel brilliantly tells the story of the aftermath of a deadly distracted driving crash. His portrait is riveting. I could not stop reading, and neither will you." - Ray LaHood, former U.S. Secretary of Transportation
"A portrait of our digital age that will deeply frighten you and cause you to reevaluate many common aspects of your 'connected' life...An extraordinarily important book that everyone - and I mean everyone - should read." - Douglas Preston, co-author of The Monster of Florence
"A masterpiece of reporting, insight, and empathy...A beautiful, cautionary tale that reads like a novel, and that we disregard at our risk." - Robert Kurson, author of Shadow Divers
"A Deadly Wandering is more than a page-turner. It's a book that can save lives." - Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows
"Matt Richtel's riveting book is narrative nonfiction at its finest...This book should be placed in every school and legislative chamber in the country." - Jon Huntsman, former governor of Utah
"This book does that most amazing of feats: it makes cutting-edge scientific research feel relevant to the choices we make every time we get in a car, sit at a desk, or talk to our friends and family." - Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit
"A gripping book...This is human drama and the latest knowledge about obsessive technology woven together in memorable style." - Ralph Nader, author of Unsafe at Any Speed
This information about A Deadly Wandering was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Matt Richtel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times technology journalist and novelist. He is the author of two previous critically acclaimed novels, Hooked and Devil's Plaything, and his fiction, like his journalism, focuses on the impact of technology on how people live, behave, and love in the 21st century. He won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting for his series on distracted driving. He lives in San Francisco with his family.
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