Boom, Bust, Boom

“Boom, Bust, Boom, if you pardon the wordplay, booms. It pops off the page as adventure, troubling history, ecological warning, travel narrative, even a bit of horror. If one can write horror suffused with joy of place, joy of language. Utter abandon and delight in story. Jim Harrison calls the book ‘hearty.’ I second that.” —Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The Hummingbird’s Daughter and The Devil’s Highway “Bill Carter has extracted something that remains all but unnoticed by most people—copper—and told an incredible story about this amazing metal. Boom, Bust, Boom is the best sort of journalism: beautifully written, rich in detail and impossible to ignore. I particularly loved how Carter wove a personal story into a topic of global scope. I know, as a writer, how hard that is to pull off, and as a reader i am always amazed when someone does. It is a superb book.” —Sebastian Junger, author of War and The Perfect Storm “Bill Carter’s new book is utterly engaging. I want to use the words fabulous and hearty.  We often think we know the world but then we read a book that tells us we didn’t.  Carter is a hard man and he humiliates the copper industry and the grave dangers they carelessly expose us to.  A necessary read for thinking Americans.” —Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall “Copper is the curse of the southwest. Bill Carter’s blazing book takes us to the crime scene where our lust for things murders the earth. Time to kill the cellphone, leave twitter to the twits and listen up.” —Charles Bowden, author of Murder City “Carter’s scope is large, but his storytelling technique is up-close and personal. In the end, the author decided to move his family out of his beloved Bisbee to escape the threat of a reopened copper mine, but he makes it abundantly clear that there is, for our modern society, no escape from dependence on copper. A well-told, fact-filled story written with a touch of fury and a dash of regret.” —Kirkus Reviews “Boom, Bust, Boom is written like a good documentary, exposing the author’s struggle to find answers through his own personal journey. Through Carter’s eyes, we are reminded of our inextricable link to this landscape-altering resource – and the consequences of our dependence.” —Wall Street Journal “a riveting expose… full of personal, historical, and technical information, that lead inexorably to the question whether we can control our appetite for this critical element in order to protect the people and natural resources that make life on Earth worth living.” —Huffington Post “An idiosyncratic but compelling examination of the mining of copper, which is vital to modern communications, but at a daunting environmental cost.” —Seattle Times

Bill Carter is the author of Red Summer: The Danger, Madness, and Exaltation of Salmon Fishing in a Remote Alaskan Village; Boom, Bust, Boom: A Story About Copper, the Metal that Runs the World; and Fools Rush In: A True Story of Love, War, and Redemption. He is also the director of Miss Sarajevo, an award-winning documentary produced by Bono. He has written for Rolling Stone, Outside, Men’s Journal, and other publications. He lives with his family in southern Arizona.