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A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST A NEW YORK TIMES TOP TEN BOOK OF THE YEAR A VANITY FAIR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

A wild humane and hilarious meditation on postprivacy Americafrom the acclaimed author of Thrown

Who are you You are data about data You are a map of connectionsa culmination of everything you have ever posted searched emailed liked and followed In this groundbreaking work of narrative nonfiction Kerry Howley investigates the curious implications of living in the age of the indelible Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs tells the true story of intelligence specialist Reality Winner a lone young woman who stuffs a state secret under her skirt and trusts the wrong people to help After printing five pages of dangerous information she was never supposed to see Winner finds herself at the mercy of forces more invasive than she could have possibly imagined

Following Winners unlikely journey from rural Texas to a federal courtroom Howley maps a hidden world drawing in John Walker Lindh Lady Gaga Edward Snowden a rescue dog named Outlaw Babyface Nelson and a mother who will do whatever it takes to get her daughter out of jail Howleys subjects face a challenge new to history they are imprisoned by their past selves trapped for as long as the Internet endures A soap opera set in the deep state Bottoms Up and the Devil Laughs is a free fall into a world where everything is recorded and nothing is sacred from a singular writer unafraid to ask essential questions about the strangeness of modern life