KEVIN FAGAN

PETALUMA --

Copperfield's Books welcomes celebrated reporter and author Kevin Fagan to Petaluma for a discussion about his powerful new book - .

Join us for a reading and talk followed by an audience Q&A and book signing with photo opportunities.

This is a free event, registration required for seating.

In the tradition of Stephanie Land and Matthew Desmond, a powerful and deeply reported narrative of homelessness, despair, and hope.

Kevin Fagan’s The Lost and the Found, set in San Francisco—one of the wealthiest cities in America—takes an empathic, character-driven approach to exploring the human side of what’s behind the homelessness epidemic.

An award-winning journalist and Pulitzer Prize nominee who has covered homelessness for decades and spent extensive time on the streets for his reporting, Fagan experienced it himself as a young man and brings a deep understanding to the crisis. He introduces us to Rita and Tyson, telling the deeply moving story of two unhoused people rescued by their families with the help of Fagan’s reporting, and their struggle to pull themselves out of homelessness and addiction, ending with both enormous tragedy and triumph.

But The Lost and the Found is not just a story of individuals experiencing homelessness, it is also a compellinglook at the link between homelessness and addiction, and an incisive commentary on housing and equality. Fagan shines a sharp light on this national calamity, and in sharing Rita and Tyson’s stories, The Lost and the Found has the potential to change the way we see and help the homeless.

"The most authentic account of homelessness by the author who literally slept next to his subjects on the cold pavement of San Francisco. The book is riveting and painful, hopeful and depressing. Kevin Fagan captures the desperation of those on the street who simply want to survive and their attempts to overcome their addiction. I couldn't put the book down. It's a must read for anyone who wants to understand this vexing problem in our society. Kevin's humanity is breathtaking."
--Congresswoman Jackie Speier (ret), author of Undaunted

Author: Kevin Fagan is a longtime award-winning reporter and author, having spent over three decades at the San Francisco Chronicle before leaving in 2025 to pursue book writing. He has been nominated several times for the Pulitzer Prize, and his awards include the national James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism, National Headliner and the John. S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University. During his career, he has covered homelessness, the 9/11 terror attacks, executions, serial killers, California’s wildfires and much more, but homelessness has always been the subject closest to his heart. One Signal/Atria/Simon & Schuster in February 2025 published his book The Lost and The Found: A True Story of Homelessness, Found Family and Second Chances, which New Yorker Magazine said “has the deft touch that can come only when the ego of the journalist ebbs into something far more substantial and convincing…. An earnest reminder of the moral side of the crisis: why it is still worth fighting for the basic dignity of all people, especially those who live and die in the teeth of the American contradiction."

Also check out other Arts events in Petaluma, Literary Art events in Petaluma.