Full Body Burden

Zusatztext 77569882 Informationen zum Autor Kristen Iversen Klappentext “An intimate and deeply human memoir that shows why we should all be concerned about nuclear safety, and the dangers of ignoring science in the name of national security.”—Rebecca Skloot, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks A “powerful” ( The New York Times ) account of the government’s attempt to conceal the effects of the toxic waste released by a secret nuclear weapons plant in Colorado and a community’s vain search for justice—soon to be a feature documentary WINNER OF THE COLORADO BOOK AWARD AND THE READING THE WEST BOOK AWARD Kristen Iversen grew up in a small Colorado town close to Rocky Flats, a secret nuclear weapons plant once designated “the most contaminated site in America.” Full Body Burden is the story of a childhood and adolescence in the shadow of the Cold War, in a landscape at once startlingly beautiful and—unknown to those who lived there—tainted with invisible yet deadly particles of plutonium. It’s also a book about the destructive power of secrets—both family and government. Her father’s hidden liquor bottles, the strange cancers in children in the neighborhood, the truth about what was made at Rocky Flats—best not to inquire too deeply into any of it. But as Iversen grew older, she began to ask questions and discovered some disturbing realities. Based on extensive interviews, FBI and EPA documents, and class-action testimony, this taut, beautifully written book is both captivating and unnerving. A KIRKUS REVIEWS AND MOTHER JONES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Leseprobe 1 Mother’s Day 1963 It’s 1963 and I’m five. I lie across the backseat of the family car, sleeping with my cheek pressed against the vinyl. My mother sits in the front with baby Karin and my father drives, carefully holding his cigarette just at the window’s edge. This is how I remember my mother and father: smoking in a cool, elegant way that makes me want to grow up quick so I can smoke, too. It’s evening and I’m tired and cranky. The spring day has been spent on a long drive through the Colorado mountains, a Sunday ritual. We turn the corner to our home on Johnson Court, the square little house my parents bought when my father left his job as an attorney for an insurance company and set up his own law practice. The neighborhood is made up of winding rows of houses that all look like ours: a front door and a picture window facing the street, two windows on each side, and a sliding door in the back that opens to a postage-stamp backyard. We have a view of the mountains and one tree. “Uh-oh,” my mother says. “Jesus.” My dad stops the car. I scramble to my knees to look. Our house is smoldering. One side is gone. A fire truck and a police car with streaking red lights stand in the driveway. My dad jumps out and my mom reaches over and pulls up the parking brake. “Dick,” she says, “I’m taking Kris to the neighbor’s.” My mother is always good in a crisis. Mrs. Hauschild is waiting at her door. She takes a pair of pajamas from her daughter’s room—we’re almost the same age—and she beds me down in the basement in a sleeping bag. “She’ll be fine here,” Mrs. Hauschild says. “She doesn’t need to see all that commotion.” She suggests they both have a drink and a cigarette. My mother nods. “Someone must have left the lamp on in Kris’s bedroom,” my mother says as they walk up the stairs. “The drapes caught on fire.” I repeat these words in my head until I come to believe I set the fire myself. I can still picture my bedside lamp, the brass switch, the round orange globe always warm to the touch. Years later—decades, in fact—my father laughs when I tell him this story. “You didn’t cause that fire,...

Dettagli sul prodotto

• Autori: Kristen Iversen
• Editore: Crown Publishing Group
• Lingue: Inglese
• Formato: Tascabile
• Pubblicazione: 04.06.2013
• EAN: 9780307955654
• ISBN: 978-0-307-95565-4
• Pagine: 432
• Dimensioni: 135 mm x 205 mm x 25 mm
• Serie: Crown
• Categoria: Saggistica > Filosofia, religione > Biografie, autobiografie