Desperate, Kris Maher
Desperate, Kris Maher
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

Desperate
An Epic Battle for Clean Water and Justice in Appalachia

Author: Kris Maher

Narrator: Gibson Frazier

Unabridged: 12 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/12/2021


Synopsis

Set in Appalachian coal country, this “superb” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) legal drama follows one determined lawyer as he faces a coal industry giant in a seven-year battle over clean drinking water for a West Virginia community.

For two decades, the water in the taps and wells of Mingo County didn’t look, smell, or taste right. Could the water be the root of the health problems—from kidney stones to cancer—in this Appalachian community? Environmental lawyer Kevin Thompson certainly thought so.

For seven years, Thompson waged an epic legal battle against Massey Energy, West Virginia’s most powerful coal company, helmed by CEO Don Blankenship. While Massey’s lawyers worked out of a gray glass office tower in Charleston known as “the Death Star,” Thompson set up shop in a ramshackle hotel in the fading coal town of Williamson. Working with fellow lawyers and a crew of young activists, Thompson would eventually uncover the ruthless shortcuts that put the community’s drinking water at risk.

Retired coal miners, women whose families had lived in the area’s coal camps for generations, a respected preacher and his brother, all put their trust in Thompson when they had nowhere else to turn. Desperate is a masterful work of investigative reporting about greed and denial, “both a case study in exploitation of the little guy and a playbook for confronting it” (Kirkus Reviews). Maher crafts a revealing portrait of a town besieged by hardship and heartbreak, and an inspiring account of one tenacious environmental lawyer’s mission to expose the truth and demand justice.

About Kris Maher

Kris Maher has been a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal since 2005, writing about environmental issues, coal mining, labor, regional economics, and other topics. He has reported on the Flint water crisis, PFAS drinking water contamination, and Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine disaster. He covered the trials of Jerry Sandusky, Bill Cosby, and Don Blankenship and has also written features for the Journal’s front-page “A-hed” column on topics ranging from extreme pogo athletes to the coldest town in the US. He lives in Pittsburgh with his son and daughter. Follow him on Twitter @Kris_Maher.


Reviews

Great plot, light on storytelling and editing In the Appalachia Mountains, families surrounding some coal mines turn their water taps on in their homes only to discover black and orange sludge pouring out. The houses start to smell, and the water filters and water heaters are breaking rapidly. The fa......more

Goodreads review by Jeff

Erin Brockovich In Appalachia. This is one of those books where the description from the publisher really does tell you pretty well exactly what the book is about: One town's, and really one man's, courtroom war against a coal company that was polluting its water supplies. There are the requisite di......more

Goodreads review by Roman

Super interesting look, and also deeply heart wrenching, if not always written in a way to demonstrate that......more

Goodreads review by Dallas

I decided to read Desperate last month, in honor of World Water Week! Huge thanks to @scribnerbooks, @netgalley for the #gifted review copy! Desperate recounts the work of environmental lawyer Kevin Thompson as he worked with residents in the “Forgotten Communities” of Mingo County, West Virginia as......more


Quotes

"Frazier has excellent timing, a smooth voice, and appropriate vocal variations that differentiate between direct quotes, written documents, and the narrative. He portrays the multiple people who are part of this story with seeming ease. The work is wide-ranging and deep, with clear descriptions of the complicated search for the source of the contaminated water and the rags-to-riches-to-jail story of the company manager."