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Investigative journalist Joshua Prager will discuss his latest book, The Family Roe: An American Story, in conversation with Tiziana Dearing, host of Radio Boston, in this Zoom webinar. With abortion rights poised to fall, The Family Roe, which was named a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize, offers extraordinary insight into the Supreme Court’s most divisive case and its plaintiff, Norma McCorvey.

The Family Roe is an engrossing family saga that confronts a half-century of propaganda and myth. Prager spent years with Norma; discovered her personal papers, a previously unseen trove; and witnessed her final moments. He also found the unknown Roe baby, Shelley Thornton, whose conception occasioned the lawsuit. Prager’s profile of Thornton for the Atlantic, adapted from the book, made worldwide front-page news. Hailed by critics on both sides of the debate, Prager’s astonishing book helps us to look with honest eyes at the five decades of struggle that brought us to where we are today.

Joshua Prager has written for the Atlantic, Vanity Fair, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. A former Nieman Fellow at Harvard, he is the author of The Echoing Green, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year.

This program is cosponsored by: Belmont Public Library, Chelmsford Public Library, Gleason Library in Carlisle, Needham Free Public Library, Newton Free Library, Peabody Insititute Library in Danvers, Pollard Memorial Library in Lowell, Reading Public Library, Robbins Library in Arlington, Somerville Public Library, Tewksbury Public Library, and the Watertown Free Public Library.