Paradise Falls
The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe
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Narrated by:
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Eileen Stevens
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By:
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Keith O'Brien
About this listen
From the New York Times best-selling journalist, the staggering, hidden story of an unlikely band of mothers who discovered the deadly secret of Love Canal, and exposed one of America’s most devastating environmental disasters.
Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. In the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly-sweet smell of chemicals.
In this propulsive work of narrative reportage, Keith O’Brien uncovers how Lois Gibbs and Luella Kenny exposed the poisonous secrets buried in their neighborhood. The school and playground had been built atop an old canal—the Love Canal, it was called. The city’s largest employer, Hooker Chemical, had quietly filled this canal with 20,000 tons of toxic waste in the 1940s and 1950s. This waste was now leaching to the surface, causing a public health crisis the likes of which America had never seen before—and sparking new and specific fears. Luella Kenny believed the chemicals were making her son sick.
O’Brien braids together the previously unknown stories of Hooker Chemical’s deeds; the local newspaperman, scientist, and congressional staffer who tried to help; the city and state officials who didn’t; and the heroic women who stood up to corporate and governmental indifference to save their families and their children. They would take their fight all the way to the top, winning support from the E.P.A. and the White House, even President Jimmy Carter himself, and by the time it was over, they would capture the American imagination. Sweeping and electrifying, Paradise Falls brings to life a defining story from our past, laying bare how the dauntless efforts of a few women helped to spark the modern environmental movement as we know it today.
Cover images: Courtesy of the University Archives, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
©2022 Keith O'Brien (P)2022 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
2023, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction: Long-listed
CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE NOMINEE
“Propulsive . . . A mighty work of historical journalism . . . Paradise Falls is a glorious quotidian thriller about people forced to find and use their inner strength. After all these years, they are fortunate to have a chronicler as focused and thoughtful as O’Brien. He brings their courage back to life.”—The Boston Globe
“With stunning clarity . . . [O’Brien chronicles] the human tragedy of Love Canal. . . By the time I read of Jon Allen’s death, even though I knew the outcome, I cried. . . As the disaster unfolds, there are horrific discoveries, medical mysteries and plenty of screaming neighbors . . . so gripping it could almost be a thriller.”—Erika Engelhaupt, Science News
"Paced like a thriller, it’s a remarkable story of perseverance against impossible odds."—Chicago Review of Books
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At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents, consuming more electricity than New York City. But to most of the world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians - many of them young women from small towns across the South - were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work. Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the true nature of the tasks they performed each day in the hulking factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains.
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Important story of this secret city
- By CBlox on 11-14-13
By: Denise Kiernan
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Yellow Dirt
- An American Story of a Poisoned Land and a People Betrayed
- By: Judy Pasternak
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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From the 1930s to the 1960s, the United States knowingly used and discarded an entire tribe of people. The Navajo worked unprotected in the uranium mines that fueled the Manhattan Project and the Cold War. Long after these mines were abandoned, Navajos in all four corners of the Reservation (which borders Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona) continued grazing their animals on sagebrush flats riddled with uranium that had been blasted from the ground.
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Dirty little secret of nuclear development
- By Buretto on 08-13-20
By: Judy Pasternak
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Levittown
- Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary Suburb
- By: David Kushner
- Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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In the decade after World War II , one entrepreneurial family helped thousands of people buy into the American dream of owning a home. The Levitts, William, Alfred, and their father, Abe, pooled their talents to create storybook towns with affordable little houses. They laid out the welcome mat - but not to everyone. Levittown had a Whites-only policy.
By: David Kushner
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A Mighty Long Way
- My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School
- By: Carlotta Walls LaNier, Lisa Frazier Page, Bill Clinton - foreword
- Narrated by: Carlotta Walls LaNier
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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When 14-year-old Carlotta Walls walked up the stairs of Little Rock Central High School on September 25, 1957, she and eight other Black students only wanted to make it to class. But the journey of the “Little Rock Nine”, as they came to be known, would lead the nation on an even longer and much more turbulent path, one that would challenge prevailing attitudes, break down barriers, and forever change the landscape of America.
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Disappointing
- By SWF in Minneapolis on 04-27-24
By: Carlotta Walls LaNier, and others
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The Crusades of Cesar Chavez
- A Biography
- By: Miriam Pawel
- Narrated by: Jackson Gutierrez
- Length: 21 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first comprehensive biography of Chavez, Miriam Pawel offers a searching yet empathetic portrayal. Chavez emerges here as a visionary figure with tragic flaws; a brilliant strategist who sometimes stumbled; and a canny, streetwise organizer whose pragmatism was often at odds with his elusive, soaring dreams.
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Cesar Chávez
- By Ed on 09-10-18
By: Miriam Pawel
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The Desperate Hours
- One Hospital's Fight to Save a City on the Pandemic's Front Lines
- By: Marie Brenner
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In the spring of 2020, COVID-19 arrived in New York City. Before long, America’s largest metropolis was at war against a virus that mercilessly swept through its five boroughs. In The Desperate Hours, award-winning journalist Marie Brenner, having been granted unprecedented 18-month access to the entire New York-Presbyterian hospital system, tells the story of the doctors, nurses, residents, researchers, and suppliers who tried to save lives across Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn and the northern periphery of the city.
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Way too much politics
- By Josh on 07-18-22
By: Marie Brenner
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Promise Me, Dad
- A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose
- By: Joe Biden
- Narrated by: Joe Biden
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
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In November 2014, 13 members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, a tradition they had been celebrating for the past 40 years; it was the one constant in what had become a hectic, scrutinized, and overscheduled life. The Thanksgiving holiday was a much-needed respite, a time to connect, a time to reflect on what the year had brought, and what the future might hold. But this year felt different from all those that had come before.
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A Sad Memoir
- By Jean on 12-02-17
By: Joe Biden
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Shortest Way Home
- One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future
- By: Pete Buttigieg
- Narrated by: Pete Buttigieg
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Once described by The Washington Post as "the most interesting mayor you've never heard of", Pete Buttigieg, the 36-year-old Democratic mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has improbably emerged as one of the nation's most visionary politicians. First elected in 2011, Buttigieg left a successful business career to move back to his hometown, previously tagged by Newsweek as a "dying city", and transformed it into a shining model of urban reinvention.
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Reveals a Person Wise & Experienced & Literate
- By dbbks3 on 03-17-19
By: Pete Buttigieg
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Strange Stones
- By: Peter Hessler
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Peter Hessler’s best reportage - a dazzling display of the powerful storytelling, shrewd cultural insight, and warm sense of humor that are the trademarks of his work. Over the last decade, as a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three books, Peter Hessler has lived in Asia and the United States, writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider in these two very different regions.
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funny, entertaining
- By Katherine on 08-02-13
By: Peter Hessler
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Inside Scientology
- The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion
- By: Janet Reitman
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 15 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Scientology, created in 1954 by a prolific sci-fi writer named L. Ron Hubbard, claims to be the world's fastest-growing religion, with millions of members around the world and huge financial holdings. Its celebrity believers keep its profile high, and its teams of "volunteer ministers" offer aid at disaster sites such as Haiti and the World Trade Center. But Scientology is also a notably closed faith, harassing journalists and others through litigation and intimidation, even infiltrating the highest levels of government to further its goals.
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My cup of tea.
- By MWMcCabe on 08-09-11
By: Janet Reitman
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Class Action
- The Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law
- By: Clara Bingham, Laura Leedy Gansler
- Narrated by: Gabrielle De Cuir
- Length: 15 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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When the local iron mine began hiring women in 1975, Lois Jenson, a single mother on welfare, didn't think twice about accepting the grueling but well-paid job. What she hadn't considered was that she was entering a male-dominated society that fiercely resisted the inclusion of women, a prejudice born out in the brutal harassment of every female miner.
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infuriating
- By Ron on 05-20-06
By: Clara Bingham, and others
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What listeners say about Paradise Falls
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ashley Kissinger
- 03-30-23
Quite the story!
It grabs you right from the beginning! If you don’t know of the love canal, read this! An Erin Brokovich like story about taking on the state and corporations from a neighborhood in Niagara Falls! Astounding!!! Bravo to the writer and narrator!
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- Jill Fine
- 05-09-22
Fascinating story I hadn’t heard
I’m 48 and hadn’t heard about this catastrophe. This is a well reported and paced story and nicely read.
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- I. Smith
- 08-13-23
Great book
Anyone who grew up in the late 70s remembers Love Canal. The people in this book that fought for the legislation and remediation should be congratulated for not giving up and for changing the attitudes of the nation.
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- J. C. Edens
- 11-20-24
Incredible work of everyday people
I loved this book, and learned so much about how the tireless work of housewives, scientists, congressional staffers (so many of them women) brought this disaster to light and fought for some kind of resolution. Great choice on narrator too.
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- Alan M. Polansky
- 09-05-22
Compounds are Not Elements
Very good overall- but some of the science terms are muddled up. Narrator is great and the overall story is very interesting - if not but a little depressing. A very important event in US history.
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- scott
- 04-19-22
Gripping….
This is an extraordinary story. I grew up in the area and once lived in North Tonawanda, not far from Love Canal.
The author is quite simply an skillful and gripping story teller. I was enthralled the entire book.
Outstanding. Truly.
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- Susan
- 04-28-22
Love Canal must be remembered
This book tells the story of the earth days of the collective awareness of environmental disasters. I remember it clearly, as I was a young mother when it was happening and was horrified by it.
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- ARTHUR KLEIN
- 08-25-22
A must read for today.
I was familiar with most of the high points and details of the Love Canal and nearly passed on the book as a result.
But O’Briens detailed narrative of the incredible slow acceptance by authorities of the results of the dangerous chemical mixes on the people living there. The new telling includes the irony of Governor Hugh Carey and others who sought to downplay the impacts on the public health then in the end were forced to relocate all the threatened out of harms way.
The thread through the book is the slow realization of Lois Gibbs and Luella Kennedy to the harm to their families and the electrifying tale of their transformation from quiet citizens to tree shaking movers who challenged and converted official indifference to the Creation of the Superfund to clean up national Love Canals.
O’Brien fits everything into his neat and thorough story. He includes Louis Nizer, Buffalo’s Catholic Diocese and it’s royalty trying to stifle Sister Malone and the many doubters who slowed but did not stop Richard Lippes and Gibbs from saving the lives of near forgotten victims of Corporate indifference in the well described actions and words of Armand Hammer.
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- Natalie Hochadel
- 03-21-24
Local history
A good read of Niagara Falls history or for anyone who lives in the Buffalo area! I had heard about this growing up but now to put names and to the faces is so fascinating.
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- Anonymous User
- 08-05-22
Detailed and Well-rounded
This book does a fantastic job of outlining the story of an environmental disaster. I appreciate that multiple perspectives were given with context for why someone acted a certain way and factors that may have influenced decisions and behavior. A tragic story but one that we can definitely learn from.
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