The Fact of a Body

A Murder and a Memoir

By: Alex Marzano-Lesnevich

Narrated by: Alex Marzano-Lesnevich

"This book is a marvel. The Fact of a Body is equal parts gripping and haunting and will leave you questioning whether any one story can hold the full truth." -- Celeste Ng, author of the New York Times bestselling Everything I Never Told You

Before Alex Marzano-Lesnevich begins a summer job at a law firm in Louisiana, working to help defend men accused of murder, they think their position is clear. The child of two lawyers, Alex is staunchly anti-death penalty. But the moment convicted murderer Ricky Langley’s face flashes on the screen as Alex reviews old tapes—the moment they hear him speak of his crimes—they are overcome with the feeling of wanting him to die. Shocked by their reaction, Alex digs deeper and deeper into the case. Despite their vastly different circumstances, something in Langley's story is unsettlingly, uncannily familiar.

Crime, even the darkest and most unsayable acts, can happen to any one of us. As Alex pores over the facts of the murder, they find themself thrust into the complicated narrative of Ricky’s childhood. And by examining the details of Ricky’s case, Alex is forced to face their own story, to unearth long-buried family secrets, and reckon with a past that colors their view of Ricky's crime.

But another surprise awaits: Alex wasn’t the only one who saw their life in Ricky’s.

An intellectual and emotional thriller that is also a different kind of murder mystery, THE FACT OF A BODY is an audiobook not only about how the story of one crime was constructed—but about how we grapple with our own personal histories. Along the way it tackles questions about the nature of forgiveness, and if a single narrative can ever really contain something as definitive as the truth. This groundbreaking, heart-stopping work, ten years in the making, shows how the law is more personal than we would like to believe—and the truth more complicated, and powerful, than we could ever imagine.

This program is read by the author.

©2017 Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"This book is a marvel. With unflinching precision and immense compassion, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich peels apart both a murder case and her own experience to reveal how we try to make sense of the past. The Fact of a Body is equal parts gripping and haunting and will leave you questioning whether any one story can hold the full truth." --Celeste Ng, author of the New York Times bestselling Everything I Never Told You

"The Fact of a Body is unlike any murder story I've ever read, a masterpiece of both reportage and memoir, a book that could only be written by an author with Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich's staggering gifts: a relentless reporter with a law degree from Harvard, a poet's understanding of the cadence of a line, and a novelist's gift for empathy. Walter Benjamin famously said that all great works of art either dissolve a genre or invent one. This book does both, and its greatness is undeniable." --Justin St. Germain, author of Son of a Gun

"The Fact of a Body is a remarkable act of witness, an anatomy of silence and the violence it abets, a book of both public and private accountings. Rejecting the false comfort of certainty, it confronts the inadequacy of all our tools for fathoming not just unforgivable crimes, but the baffling, human grace that can forgive them. This is a profound and riveting book." -- Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You

Ambitious, Moving

Not a happy story, but exceptionally executed. Much to ponder during and after listening to this book. The author's narrative is of the highest quality, too.

The juxtaposition of true crime and personal history genres is brilliant. I mirror the author's hunger to examine facts and the value of ethics. She is a very talented storyteller, but if you like action /intrigue without so much dogged pursduit of truth, skip this one. My take home from this book is that "truth" is often unattainable. and least likely to be neatly packaged in court.

I deeply enjoyed the intellectual ride and the engrossing story full of nuance, beauty, and sensory input. I am changed by it.

Gripping

Couldn't sleep after finishing this book. Not because it was dark or scary, but because I couldn't stop processing its message.

A mesmerizing masterpiece!

I just finished this 10.5 hr audiobook in under 4 days -- definitely a new record I didn't know I was capable of! Listening while driving, cooking, cleaning, sitting in the bathroom, gardening with earbuds in, and sometimes in small bits whenever I could squeeze them in like the minutes in-between getting up from my yoga mat to sitting down at my work laptop lamenting that I didn't have more time to keep listening. It's​ not a short book, but I almost wish it was longer because I wanted to keep listening and keep being mesmerized by this masterpiece. Bravo and congratulations to the author for this achievement!

Best listened to at .75 speed

Great book. Best listened to at .75 speed. The writing deserves the slower pace. The topic needs the slower pace for the listener to absorb. Five starts is not enough.

True Crime Meets Heartbreaking Memoir

Once I started listening to The Fact of a Body on audio, I couldn’t stop. I knew it was a true story about a murder, but I didn’t know how much more it was going to be or how much I’ve always been looking for this story. In 1992, a 6-year-old boy was murdered in Louisiana. Years later, law student Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich went on a quest to understand the convicted murderer’s mind in order to answer questions from her own past. If you’ve ever had the experience of learning that someone close to you has done something unthinkable, this is a fascinating, difficult, and special story. The author does her own narration, and she treats the story so delicately that I was able to handle it on audio.

Story that Needed to Told on Both Fronts

I had a very difficult time with this story for personal reasons, but I am glad that I listened for it is one that I know is important for women who have been abused and told to ignore what happened to them and just go on living. This story had many different layers and I felt that if you can listen you can hear the author and how she also conveys how she continues to live and thrive even throughout darkness that surrounds us in the world and how we continue to move forward. even when those that we care about ignore the facts that they helped with contributing to our abuse by turning a blind eye and we cannot explain why we still love them something I ask myself regularly as I forgive those that caused the pain, but how do we actually forget when it stays with you forever and shapes the person you have become.

Disappointed

After reading some of the other reviews before listening, I had high hopes this would be a hard one to “put down” … however , it’s two weeks later and I’m not invested at all; the contradiction of the two stories does not align and there is no travesty and nothing unique in how the author presents her story. Not sure why we would feel sympathy for an overprivileged life of a young girl who that privilege not withheld had to deal with normal challenges countless others have faced and experienced. Even the attempt to align her story with that of a serial pedophile and child killer is a nonstarter. Thumbs down on this one …

I loved this story!!!

I loved the way she made connections between the victim, criminal and herself. Her raw telling of the truth of her own youth and her relationship with her parents kept me glued. The narration was good, the cadence is smooth and her voice, soothing. It went straight to my favorite list

Very Gripping

The author and narrator makes you want to listen more going through the history of a two families that surround the murder of a six-year-old while also learning about the author’s life as well and how they have a common cord. So much information as well that a second read is needed.

Brilliant and fascinating.

I listened to this book from start to finish without a break, I was so engaged and as it ended I felt as if I had just stepped off a roller coaster.
This is not easy stuff to think about. Its not a feel-good story. Its true crime on one side of the coin, and then the other side is a remarkable exploration of the parallels drawn by a brilliant mind between the life of an admitted pedophile, a convicted child killer, and her own childhood sexual trauma and the two families, her own and the killer's, and how each family created, and later how they dealt with, pedophiles and child sexual trauma in their families.
I was blown away by the way Ms. Marzano-Lesnevich bravely examines the facts of her own childhood trauma and the ways in which it continued to affect both her mind and her body for all the years that followed, and then how she is able to see connections and patterns in the details of the past, both that of the killer, and her own.
Absolutely worth the credit!!!