Valley So Low

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

A riveting courtroom drama about the victims of one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history—and the country lawyer determined to challenge the notion that, in America, justice can be bought

“[A] tense investigative chronicle.” —The New Yorker

For more than fifty years, a power plant in the small town of Kingston, Tennessee,  burned fourteen thousand tons of coal a day, gradually creating a mountain of ashen waste sixty feet high and covering eighty-four acres, contained only by an earthen embankment. In 2008, just before Christmas, that embankment broke, unleashing a lethal wave of coal sludge that covered three hundred acres, damaged nearly thirty homes, and precipitating a cleanup effort that would cost more than a billion dollars—and the lives of more than fifty cleanup workers who inhaled the toxins it released.

Jim Scott, a local personal-injury lawyer, agreed to represent the workers after they began to fall ill. That meant doing legal battle against the Tennessee Valley Authority,  a colossal, federally owned power company that had once been a famous cornerstone of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Scott and his hastily assembled team gathered extensive evidence of malfeasance: threats against workers; retaliatory firings; disregarded safety precautions; and test results, either hidden or altered, that would have revealed harmful concentrations of arsenic, lead, and radioactive materials at the cleanup site. At every stage, Scott—outmanned and nearly broke—had to overcome legal hurdles constructed by TVA and the firm it hired to help execute the cleanup. He grew especially close to one of the victims, whose swift decline only intensified his hunger for justice. As the incriminating evidence mounted, the workers seemed to have everything on their side, including the truth—and yet, was it all enough to prevail?

The lawsuit that Scott pursued on the workers’ behalf was about their illnesses, no doubt. But it was also about whether blue-collar employees could beat the C-suite; if self-described “hillbilly lawyers” could beat elite corporate defense attorneys; and whether strong evidence could beat fat pocketbooks. With suspense and rich detail, Jared Sullivan’s thrilling account lays bare the casual brutality of the American justice system, and calls into question whether—and how—the federal government has failed its people.

"Valley So Low is more than a tale of unrepentant corporate evil and incomprehensible environmental destruction. It’s more, even, than a spellbinding courtroom drama. This brilliant, necessary book is a testament to the power of perseverance and a blueprint for challenging industry’s shrugged-off human costs. Valley So Low is a ballad, yes, but it’s also an anthem. And a triumph." —Margaret Renkl, author of The Comfort of Crows

“This tense investigative chronicle of what Sullivan, a journalist, calls the ‘single largest industrial disaster in U.S. history in terms of volume’ focusses on the workers who cleaned up afterward. ... As Sullivan follows the court case filed by some of the affected men, the book becomes a legal thriller—a story of ‘simple, hardworking’ Davids fighting the Big Energy Goliath who poisoned them.” —The New Yorker

“Sullivan brings a maximalist, punctilious approach.... We don’t just read about the trial’s interminable delays: We feel them.” —Nathaniel Rich, The New York Times Book Review

“Jared is a master storyteller and Valley So Low is definitely worth your time.” —John Hendrickson, staff writer for The Atlantic

“Propulsive and written with flair, Valley So Low is a valuable addition to the pantheon of legal thrillers.” —Bookpage (starred review)

“A heartbreaking yet inspiring legal drama that reminds readers of the strength of ordinary people.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“In Valley So Low, Jared Sullivan recounts in cinematic detail the saga of a coal disaster and the self-described ‘hillbilly lawyers’ who stood up for blue-collar workers in a tiny Tennessee town.” —Garden & Gun

"Jared Sullivan’s Valley So Low is a gripping legal thriller documenting the power and greed behind this appalling and deadly environmental disaster. Not since Jonathan Harr’s A Civil Action has a book so compellingly documented one man’s Herculean efforts to force accountability through the courts.” —Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Devil in the Grove

“Jared Sullivan brings to mind a young William Langewiesche in his skill at following human stories through the dense fact-field of long, careful reporting on major events.” —John Jeremiah Sullivan, author of Pulphead

“An unassuming book that proves it is easier to imagine the death of capitalism than it is to imagine the death of our better angels. This is the book we should be reading, the book we should all be trying to write. Valley So Low is a masterpiece.” —Nico Walker, author of Cherry

JARED SULLIVAN has written for The New Yorker, Time, Garden & Gun, and USA Today, and he previously worked as a writer and editor at Men’s Journal and Field & Stream. He lives in Franklin, TN.

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