About this item
The true story of a small town ravaged by industrial pollution, Toms River won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and has been hailed by The New York Times as "a new classic of science reporting." Now available in paperback with a new afterword by acclaimed author Dan Fagin, the book masterfully blends hard-hitting investigative journalism, scientific discovery, and unforgettable characters. One of New Jersey's seemingly innumerable quiet seaside towns, Toms River became the unlikely setting for a decades-long drama that culminated in 2001 with one of the largest environmental legal settlements in history. For years, large chemical companies had been using Toms River as their private dumping ground, burying tens of thousands of leaky drums in open pits and discharging billions of gallons of acid-laced wastewater into the town's namesake river.
About the Author
A science journalism professor at New York University, Dan Fagin is a nationally prominent journalist on environmental health topics. His new book, Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. It has been described as "a new classic of science reporting" (The New York Times) , "a gripping environmental thriller" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) , "a crisp, hard-nosed probe into corporate arrogance and the power of public resistance" (Publishers Weekly) , "required environmental reading" (The Philadelphia Inquirer) , and "an absorbing and thoughtful navigation of our era of synthetic chemicals" (USA Today) .
