Paradise Falls

The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe

By: Keith O'Brien

Narrated by: Eileen Stevens

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.