Finding Tess Audiobook By Beth Macy cover art

Finding Tess

A Mother’s Search for Answers in a Dopesick America

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Finding Tess

By: Beth Macy
Narrated by: Beth Macy
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About this listen

On Christmas Eve, 2017, Tess Henry was found dead in a dumpster in Las Vegas. Tess was a 28-year-old new mother, a former honor roll student, and a high school basketball player from suburban Roanoke, Virginia, a place ravaged by the national opioid crisis. The New York Times best-selling author Beth Macy chronicled Tess and her mom, Patricia, through Tess' harrowing, years-long battle to recover from heroin addiction in her award-winning book Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America. But just as Tess was on the brink of returning to a normal life with her young son, she was brutally murdered.

Finding Tess: A Mother’s Search for Answers in a Dopesick America is a psychosocial autopsy of sorts, not just a retracing of Tess’ final steps on the streets of Las Vegas but also a dissection of what went wrong during the six-year span of her opioid addiction as well as the changes inspired by her story. This exclusive audio documentary - a coda to Dopesick - features interviews with Tess, her family, and many of those who tried to help her along the way as well as the systems and the people who failed her. By tracing Tess’ final steps as she tried so hard to make her way back to Virginia - and to her son - Finding Tess illuminates a journey shared by too many of the 2.6 million Americans battling opioid addiction, offering lessons from a cast of unlikely heroes and, along with them, hope.

©2019 PaperGirl, LLC (P)2019 Audible Originals, LLC
True Crime Inspiring Emotionally Gripping Exciting Funny Scary Las Vegas Virginia

Go Behind the Scenes of Finding Tess

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Our favorite moments from Finding Tess

An American family challenged to deal with addiction
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Tess attends recovery meetings.
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An expert explains the science behind addiction.
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"…and that basement sometimes even had a trap door."
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  • Finding Tess
  • An American family challenged to deal with addiction
  • Finding Tess
  • Tess attends recovery meetings.
  • Finding Tess
  • An expert explains the science behind addiction.
  • Finding Tess
  • "…and that basement sometimes even had a trap door."
Beth Macy

About the Creator and Performer

Beth Macy is the author of three New York Times best-selling books. A journalist who writes about outsiders and underdogs, Macy has won more than two dozen national journalism awards, including a 2013 J. Anthony Lukas award for Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local—and Helped Save an American Town and an L.A. Times Book Prize for her recent Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America. She has reported from Roanoke, Virginia, for three decades, and has published essays in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and for NBC News. Finding Tess: A Mother’s Search for Answers in a Dopesick America is her first audio documentary.

Credits

In loving memory of Theresa Helen Henry

Dedicated to Patricia Mehrmann and families across America battling addiction

Written and Narrated by Beth Macy

Executive Produced and Edited by Emily Martinez

Additional Editing by Collin Campbell

Recording Engineers: Bill Trifiro, Denise Allen-Membraño, and Steve Hobbs at VPS Studios in Roanoke, Virginia

Sound editing and assembly by Caleb Brooks, Reel Audiobooks

Mixing Engineer: Mark Galup, Reel Audiobooks

Sound Design, Mixing and Mastering by Steve Frend & Peter Mack, Outloud Audio

Fact-checked by Roni Greenwood

Special thanks to Tyler Cabot, Keith O’Connell, Kirk Schroder, Dorian Karchmar, Lora Stradley & Donna Hefner

"i carry your heart with me (i carry it in)". Copyright 1952, ©1980, 1991 by the Trustees for the E.E. Cummings Trust,
from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage.
Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation

What listeners say about Finding Tess

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Gone Girl

Eyeopener on the dark descent of drug addiction to opioids. It chronicles the final years of a Roanoke lady in the throes of dopesickness and her heartbreaking and harrowing struggle to free herself from its grip. Every parent should listen to this. Well worth a listen.

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RECOVERY

as a recovering heroin addict, this book hit home. I can relate to Tess in a way that I can't even put into words. My heart goes out to Patricia. This was an amazing read. I'll be sending it to my mom.

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We need to know!

This true story is hard to listen to but we need to know what is going on! Beth Macy does a great job telling the story she wrote to help America see what we try to avoid! Everyone needs to listen!

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Excellent

This book is an emotional look inside the addicts hell. I was shocked at the difficulty finding treatment. Insightful, educational. Highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to find understanding for an addict.

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Amazing

Powerful!!!! Incredibly sad and tragic. Hopefully treatment will become more available for lost and struggling souls like Tess.

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Mamaj

What a raw, honest look into addiction and the fallout it leaves behind. There isn’t a family around that hasn’t been touched by this plague in one way or another. Thank you for all the time spent on sharing the story of “the poet”. It is inspiring and very helpful to know that there are advocates/angels out there watching out for our family members even if it’s a place to lay their head, kind words of encouragement or a meal in their belly. This is an unreal fight with a powerful adversary.

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heart breaking but we all should know

I wasn't sure how I felt about the addicts so I hoped this book can help me understand them. although it didnt give me what I was searching for, it did give a brand new point of view on addiction.

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Tx! Bitter, impressive, important. Cut 1/2.

Not a bit sorry that I read this! Definitely recommend!
Eye-opening. In case you encounter this.
Horrifying that it’s possible in nowadays.

Impressive professional journalist style.
Yet Too long. Could not cope with more than 1/2, all clear already, the topic is explained

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Sadly, a story to which many can relate

Finding Tess chronicles the daily battles of one addict's life. The good... the bad... the ugly... are shared not only in Tess's own voice, but her family's and friends'as well. A beautiful life extinguished far too soon, her story is one with which too many of us can relate. A definite read for all who wish to be enlightened, horrified, and propelled to make a difference to what has become the most deadly epidemics of our time.

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Wow! This is a heart opener.

I didn't realize I lacked true empathy for this disease before lustening to this book.

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