Desperate: An Epic Battle for Clean Water and Justice in Appalachia

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.

Author: Kris Maher
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 10/12/2021
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.28h x 6.31w x 1.20d
ISBN: 9781501187346


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 07/19/2021
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2021
Booklist 08/01/2021 pg. 18

About the Author
Kris Maher is a journalist who writes for The Wall Street Journal on environmental issues, coal mining, politics, regional economics, and other topics. Since 2005, he has reported on the Flint water crisis, the PFAS drinking water contamination, and the Upper Big Branch mine disaster and covered the trials of Jerry Sandusky, Bill Cosby, and Don Blankenship. He lives in Pittsburgh with his son and daughter. Follow him on Twitter: @Kris_Maher.