Amity and Prosperity

One Family and the Fracturing of America

By: Eliza Griswold

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

Winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction

Prize-winning poet and journalist Eliza Griswold’s Amity and Prosperity is an expose on how fracking shattered a rural Pennsylvania town, and how one lifelong resident brought the story into the national spotlight. This is an incredible true account of investigative journalism and a devastating indictment of energy politics in America. 

Stacey Haney, a lifelong resident of Amity, Pennsylvania, is struggling to support her children when the fracking boom comes to town. Like most of her neighbors, she sees the energy companies’ payments as a windfall. Soon trucks are rumbling down her unpaved road and a fenced-off fracking site rises on adjacent land. But her annoyance gives way to concern and then to fear as domestic animals and pets begin dying and mysterious illnesses strike her family - despite the companies’ insistence that nothing is wrong. 

Griswold masterfully chronicles Haney’s transformation into an unlikely whistle-blower as she launches her own investigation into corporate wrongdoing. As she takes her case to court, Haney inadvertently reveals the complex rifts in her community and begins to reshape its attitudes toward outsiders, corporations, and the federal government.  

Amity and Prosperity uses her gripping and moving tale to show the true costs of our energy infrastructure and to illuminate the predicament of rural America in the 21st century.

©2018 Eliza Griswold (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

touching and poignant

This provided a touching and poignant glimpse into a complex situation. It intertwines sad realities with inspirational examples of resilience and admirable heroics. Well recommended for anyone with an interest in fracking or the history of southwest PA.

Compelling writing and story

This book is written like a novel though it is a reporter’s coverage of the effects of the fracking industry in Pennsylvania. The reader’s voice took me a while to get used to, and the story itself carried me beyond my initial annoyance with her tone. This story is heart rending and brings to our awareness the prices that some pay for our privilege. I highly recommend this author and this book.

fascinating look at hydraulic fracturing

This feels like a pretty balanced look at what happens when people are impacted by hydraulic fracturing. in Pennsylvania, it appears that the Department of Environmental Protection is somewhere between unwilling and unable to actually protect the environment or the citizens of the Commonwealth. Government agents have been captured by industry. it's appalling and sad. it appears that nothing will be done, however, because the victims are poor.

Exceptional Book, heart breaking story

The author accurately details a scenario played out often across the US landscape, that rarely gets told. Flint and Amity are not the exception, they are becoming the rule...

Eye Opening

As a local Pennsylvanian, this was extraordinarily educational of real world problems faced by real people. these are the facts that are kept from us, those which we need as American citizens to be aware of. Wonderful narration, very heartfelt

A scary story

These circumstances, I feel, could have happened to any struggling family in America. Honest, well-meaning families taken in and taken advantage of by unethical corporations consumed with greed. A sad and well-told story.

Needlessly long

I know this might make me a horrible person but this book could have been 3 hours instead of 10. It had so so so many details and many seemingly unnecessary. Big corporations suck the life out of individuals if they stand in the way of profits. That's the whole book.

speed it up

The narration on this book kept me bogged down. The reader has a lilting style that seemed to distract from the story. It got much better after I speeded the reading up to 1 and 1/2.

Wake up!

I rarely write reviews.. however I was moved after finishing this book. So sad to listen to these family’s struggles. A MUST LISTEN!

good maybe not great.

hard to tell is this is an isolated case or is typical of fracking everywhere.