Heat And Light: A Novel

Name: Heat And Light: A Novel
Author: Jennifer Haigh
ISBN: 9780061763298

by Jennifer Haigh

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NPR Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Haigh returns to the Pennsylvania town at the center of her iconic novel Baker Towers in this ambitious, achingly human story of modern America and the conflicting forces at its heart—a bold, moving drama of hope and desperation, greed and power, big business and small-town families. Forty years ago, Bakerton coal fueled the country. Then the mines closed, and the town wore away like a bar of soap. Now Bakerton has been granted a surprise third act: it sits squarely atop the Marcellus Shale, a massive deposit of natural gas. To drill or not to drill? Prison guard Rich Devlin leases his mineral rights to finance his dream of farming.…

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NPR Books We Love

"Jennifer Haigh grew up in Pennsylvania coal country. In this novel, she explores what happens when fracking comes to a fictional version of her hometown. The story is told from multiple perspectives, starting with a cocky salesman set on convincing locals to license their land for natural gas drilling. A prison guard who dreams of farming the land he owns sells his rights. An organic farmer says no. Through the reactions and interactions of Haigh’s large cast of characters, we see how the controversies around fracking play out in corporate America, in the environmental movement, and in one small town where people must live with the consequences of their decisions."

NPR Books We Love — 2016 · apps.npr.org