Man in the Mirror

Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City

Ebook
On sale Sep 29, 2026 | 480 Pages | 9780593802021

See Additional Formats
From acclaimed journalist Anand Giridharadas, a groundbreaking feat of reporting on a tragic encounter in a New York subway car that held up a mirror to a troubled and divided nation

In 2023, New York was already a city under strain, racked by panic about crime, mistrust of police, and a broken system of care for homeless and mentally ill people. Then the lives of two men—Jordan Neely, a homeless man known in better days for his Michael Jackson impersonations, and Daniel Penny, an ex-Marine who had moved to the city seeking more than Long Island could offer—collided tragically in the subway. In Man in the Mirror, award-winning reporter and bestselling author Anand Giridharadas tells the riveting story of this deadly encounter and its aftermath, revealing through painstaking, on-the-ground reporting the depth of the rage, violence, and division that have defined 2020s America.  

Man in the Mirror recounts Neely’s death and Penny’s prosecution through the perspectives of an unforgettable cast of characters: among them, a lawyer avenging his failed campaign for district attorney; a Michael Jackson impersonator trying to make her mentee’s death matter; a father who leads homeless outreach work even as his son languishes on the street; a city official struggling to enact a serious mental healthcare agenda under a scandal-plagued mayor. In weaving these individual experiences into a vivid, immersive narrative tapestry, Giridharadas delivers human dimension and complexity to a chapter of American history that has been so often served up as divisive clickbait.

At once panoramic in its scope and finely detailed in its emotional immediacy, Man in the Mirror is a tour de force of narrative reporting and an indispensable portrait of an age.
© Michael Lionstar
ANAND GIRIDHARADAS is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Persuaders, the international bestseller Winners Take All, The True American, and India Calling. A former foreign correspondent and columnist for The New York Times for more than a decade, he has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Time, and is the publisher of the newsletter The.Ink. He is an on-air political analyst for MS NOW. He has received the Radcliffe Fellowship, the Porchlight Business Book of the Year Award, Harvard University’s Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award for Humanism in Culture, and the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. View titles by Anand Giridharadas
“In Man in the Mirror, Anand Giridharadas traces a legal battle that set safety and order for the majority against protection and care for the neediest. He writes with sympathy for both sides, recognizing despair among the advantaged and the powerless. This book’s moral complexity feels especially urgent as polarization threatens to undermine territory far beyond Giridharadas’s central narrative. This is a brave volume, profoundly researched, beautifully written, moving, and deeply felt.”
—Andrew Solomon, New York Times bestselling author of Far From the Tree and The Noonday Demon, a National Book Award Winner and Pulitzer Prize Finalist

Man in the Mirror is a gripping American tragedy—a profoundly human story of systemic failures, unequal judicial access, and the complexity of mental health care and individual choice. Anand Giridharadas captures how when rugged individualism, neoliberalism, and populism collide, people struggle to see each other until it is too late. Giridharadas is a powerful and compassionate writer of extraordinary conviction. This is a tremendous achievement.”
—Min Jin Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko, a National Book Award Finalist

“Anand Giridharadas has done it again—making us think in new ways about the ever-sharper divisions of modern America. Man in the Mirror is a tour de force of sharp-eyed reporting, powerful narrative, and heartbreaking tragedy. Its cast of characters are riveting, their stories compelling, and the moral impact of what happened to them as inescapable as are the tangled, troublesome times in which we now live. Brilliant and spellbinding.”
—Robert B. Reich, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Coming Up Short

“Like the very finest works of narrative nonfiction, Man in the Mirror is both riveting and deeply moving. Anand Giridharadas was on the ground from the very first days after the death of Jordan Neely and tirelessly and empathically followed the sprawling cast of characters involved through the verdict and its aftermath. In his deft hands, the tragic collision of an ex-Marine and a mentally ill homeless man on an uptown F train becomes a profound, lyrical meditation on the chasms dividing not only New York but all of America. It's hard to imagine a more timely book, or a more timeless one.”
—Jonathan Mahler, author of The Gods of New York

About

From acclaimed journalist Anand Giridharadas, a groundbreaking feat of reporting on a tragic encounter in a New York subway car that held up a mirror to a troubled and divided nation

In 2023, New York was already a city under strain, racked by panic about crime, mistrust of police, and a broken system of care for homeless and mentally ill people. Then the lives of two men—Jordan Neely, a homeless man known in better days for his Michael Jackson impersonations, and Daniel Penny, an ex-Marine who had moved to the city seeking more than Long Island could offer—collided tragically in the subway. In Man in the Mirror, award-winning reporter and bestselling author Anand Giridharadas tells the riveting story of this deadly encounter and its aftermath, revealing through painstaking, on-the-ground reporting the depth of the rage, violence, and division that have defined 2020s America.  

Man in the Mirror recounts Neely’s death and Penny’s prosecution through the perspectives of an unforgettable cast of characters: among them, a lawyer avenging his failed campaign for district attorney; a Michael Jackson impersonator trying to make her mentee’s death matter; a father who leads homeless outreach work even as his son languishes on the street; a city official struggling to enact a serious mental healthcare agenda under a scandal-plagued mayor. In weaving these individual experiences into a vivid, immersive narrative tapestry, Giridharadas delivers human dimension and complexity to a chapter of American history that has been so often served up as divisive clickbait.

At once panoramic in its scope and finely detailed in its emotional immediacy, Man in the Mirror is a tour de force of narrative reporting and an indispensable portrait of an age.

Author

© Michael Lionstar
ANAND GIRIDHARADAS is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Persuaders, the international bestseller Winners Take All, The True American, and India Calling. A former foreign correspondent and columnist for The New York Times for more than a decade, he has also written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Time, and is the publisher of the newsletter The.Ink. He is an on-air political analyst for MS NOW. He has received the Radcliffe Fellowship, the Porchlight Business Book of the Year Award, Harvard University’s Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award for Humanism in Culture, and the New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. View titles by Anand Giridharadas

Praise

“In Man in the Mirror, Anand Giridharadas traces a legal battle that set safety and order for the majority against protection and care for the neediest. He writes with sympathy for both sides, recognizing despair among the advantaged and the powerless. This book’s moral complexity feels especially urgent as polarization threatens to undermine territory far beyond Giridharadas’s central narrative. This is a brave volume, profoundly researched, beautifully written, moving, and deeply felt.”
—Andrew Solomon, New York Times bestselling author of Far From the Tree and The Noonday Demon, a National Book Award Winner and Pulitzer Prize Finalist

Man in the Mirror is a gripping American tragedy—a profoundly human story of systemic failures, unequal judicial access, and the complexity of mental health care and individual choice. Anand Giridharadas captures how when rugged individualism, neoliberalism, and populism collide, people struggle to see each other until it is too late. Giridharadas is a powerful and compassionate writer of extraordinary conviction. This is a tremendous achievement.”
—Min Jin Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko, a National Book Award Finalist

“Anand Giridharadas has done it again—making us think in new ways about the ever-sharper divisions of modern America. Man in the Mirror is a tour de force of sharp-eyed reporting, powerful narrative, and heartbreaking tragedy. Its cast of characters are riveting, their stories compelling, and the moral impact of what happened to them as inescapable as are the tangled, troublesome times in which we now live. Brilliant and spellbinding.”
—Robert B. Reich, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Coming Up Short

“Like the very finest works of narrative nonfiction, Man in the Mirror is both riveting and deeply moving. Anand Giridharadas was on the ground from the very first days after the death of Jordan Neely and tirelessly and empathically followed the sprawling cast of characters involved through the verdict and its aftermath. In his deft hands, the tragic collision of an ex-Marine and a mentally ill homeless man on an uptown F train becomes a profound, lyrical meditation on the chasms dividing not only New York but all of America. It's hard to imagine a more timely book, or a more timeless one.”
—Jonathan Mahler, author of The Gods of New York