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    A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City
    A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City
    A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City
    Audiobook8 hours

    A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City

    Written by Drew Philp

    Narrated by Jacques Roy

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    A young college grad buys a house in Detroit for $500 and attempts to restore it—and his new neighborhood—to its original glory in this “deeply felt, sharply observed personal quest to create meaning and community out of the fallen…A standout” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).

    Drew Philp, an idealistic college student from a working-class Michigan family, decides to live where he can make a difference. He sets his sights on Detroit, the failed metropolis of abandoned buildings, widespread poverty, and rampant crime. Arriving with no job, no friends, and no money, Philp buys a ramshackle house for five hundred dollars in the east side neighborhood known as Poletown. The roomy Queen Anne he now owns is little more than a clapboard shell on a crumbling brick foundation, missing windows, heat, water, electricity, and a functional roof.

    A $500 House in Detroit is Philp’s raw and earnest account of rebuilding everything but the frame of his house, nail by nail and room by room. “Philp is a great storyteller…[and his] engrossing” (Booklist) tale is also of a young man finding his footing in the city, the country, and his own generation. We witness his concept of Detroit shift, expand, and evolve as his plan to save the city gives way to a life forged from political meaning, personal connection, and collective purpose. As he assimilates into the community of Detroiters around him, Philp guides readers through the city’s vibrant history and engages in urgent conversations about gentrification, racial tensions, and class warfare.

    Part social history, part brash generational statement, part comeback story, A $500 House in Detroit “shines [in its depiction of] the ‘radical neighborliness’ of ordinary people in desperate circumstances” (Publishers Weekly). This is an unforgettable, intimate account of the tentative revival of an American city and a glimpse at a new way forward for generations to come.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateApr 11, 2017
    ISBN9781508239062
    Author

    Drew Philp

    Drew Philp’s work has been published both nationally and internationally and has appeared in publications, including BuzzFeed, The Detroit Free Press, Metrotimes, Corp! Magazine, the Bakersfield Californian, and the Michigan Daily. He lives in Detroit with his dog, Gratiot. A $500 House in Detroit is his first book.

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    Reviews for A $500 House in Detroit

    4.5/5

    11 ratings1 review

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    • 5/5
      I remember following for a while the developer of the fish farm years ago. I'm happy that he sat down to share the beauty of his Detroit city. It was heartbreaking to watch YouTube videos of how the state allowed homes in his area go to ruin block after block. I even looked into buying there more than once with the hope of renting them. I pray he does several more follow ups. It gives me and I'm sure others who care about our great cities around the US hope, that all is not loss, as long as we take a stand, to fight for our little piece of heaven on earth. I thank you for reminding us all of our humanity.
      Kathy D, Lakewood, WA.