Invisible Child

A triumph of in-depth reporting and storytelling ... a visceral blow-by-blow depiction of what 'structural racism' has meant in the lives of generations of one family ... above all else it is a celebration of a little girl-an unforgettable heroine whose frustration, elation, exhaustion, and intelligence will haunt your heart.

Ariel Levy

Invisible Child is hands down the best book I have read in years. Astonishing, remarkable, shocking, powerful, gripping, compelling. All of these words apply and more. This is a book of immense importance, written with tremendous craft and skill, but also compassion and verve . . . For those who have not read Invisible Child I am jealous, you are in for an extraordinary ride. Simply put, this is a masterpiece.

Thomas Harding, bestselling author of Hanns and Rudolf and The House by the Lake

A towering feat of reporting that paints, layer by layer, an extraordinary portrait of a child, a family, a city, and the nation that produced them. From start to finish, she sustains an insatiably curious and deeply empathetic focus on worlds that so many people work hard, if mostly unconsciously, to never really see.

Howard W. French, author of Born in Blackness

A wonderful and important book.

Tracy Kidder, author of Mountains Beyond Mountains

A gripping and propulsive work of narrative non-fiction . . . [an] indelible, virtuosic portrait of contemporary America

Financial Times

This is non-fiction writing at its best - uncluttered, evocative and well-researched... This is not a polemic. Elliott bears witness but does not preach; she shows but rarely tells. She does not pretend to be a neutral bystander (how could you immerse yourself in a struggling family for eight years and not root for them?) but does not intrude on her own storytelling. It is not a morality play either. The villains are too elusive and the heroes too flawed for that. This is structural, generational poverty at work in all its gruesome, demeaning inhumanity and punitive, institutional brutality.

Gary Younge, New Statesmen

Invisible Child is a tour de force of immersive reporting and a meticulous and unflinching depiction of intergenerational American poverty... Elliott exposes the granular texture of daily life with deep empathy, the punishing sameness of material want, and in the process paints a sweeping portrait of contemporary American life.

Anthony Lukas Prize Judge’s Citation, Nieman Foundation

An intimate exploration of poverty and racism in the U.S., as well as a portrait of a young person's resilience

Time

Sure to linger in the minds of many readers long after the last page has been turned... What easily could have been, in lesser hands, voyeuristic or sensational is instead a rich narrative, empathetically told. Elliott is a masterful storyteller and, by sharing Dasani's story, she calls on all of us to dismantle the systems that so often failed her and countless others

NPR

A tender portrait of a family, and a tour of America's broken welfare systems and racist policies.

The Atlantic

Andrea Elliott's reporting has an intimate, almost limitless feel to it... The result of this unflinching, tenacious reporting is a rare and powerful work whose stories will live inside you long after you've read them.

New York Times

An eye-opening, heartbreaking and deeply enraging book about the realities of contemporary US inequality

Irish Times

A tour de force

The i

Both a moving portrait and a devastating critique of America's enduring colour divide

Laura Spinney, New Statesmen

A monumental work of journalism

Sunday Times

A fascinating and powerful epic

Stylist