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

©2022 Keith O'Brien (P)2022 Random House Audio

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.