{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250181615?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"1250181615","authors":["Anna Clark"],"book_id":"9781250181619","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/the-poisoned-city-9781250181619","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250181619.jpg?v=fafa6f248d1e26ba","description":"Winner of The Hillman Prize for Book Journalism - 2019 When the people of Flint, Michigan, turned on their faucets in April 2014, the water pouring out was poisoned with lead and other toxins. Through a series of disastrous decisions, the state government had switched the city’s water supply to a source that corroded Flint’s aging lead pipes. Complaints about the foul-smelling water were dismissed: the residents of Flint, mostly poor and African American, were not seen as credible, even in matters of their own lives. It took eighteen months of activism by city residents and a band of dogged outsiders to force the state to admit that the water was poisonous. By that time, twelve people had died and Flint’s children had suffered irreparable harm. The long battle for accountability and a humane response to this man-made disaster has only just begun. In the first full account of this American tragedy, Anna Clark's The Poisoned City recounts the gripping story of Flint’s poisoned water through the people who caused it, suffered from it, and exposed it. It is a chronicle of one town, but could also be about any American city, all made precarious by the neglect of infrastructure and the erosion of democratic decision making. Places like Flint are set up to fail—and for the people who live and work in them, the consequences can be fatal.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781250181619","publication_date":"20190723","publisher":"Picador","slug":"the-poisoned-city","subtitle":"Flint's Water and the American Urban Tragedy","title":"The Poisoned City"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"SOC026030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Urban Life","score":0.7217,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL040040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Local Government","score":0.7081,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Midwest History","score":0.7024,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"SOC026030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Urban Life","score":0.7217,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"POL040040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Local Government","score":0.7081,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036090","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Midwest History","score":0.7024,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS036090","confidence_band":"high","label":"Midwest History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL002000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Cities & Urban Planning","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"POL044000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Environmental Policy","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Urban Life","score":0.7217,"slug":"urban-life"},{"label":"Local Government","score":0.7081,"slug":"local-government"},{"label":"Midwest History","score":0.7024,"slug":"midwest-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in Flint’s water crisis and the people affected by it","Good for readers interested in urban infrastructure and democratic decision-making"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Mona Hanna"],"book_id":"9780399590856","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780399590856.jpg?v=1aee5c4f09ba845d","score":0.7779,"title":"What the Eyes Don't See","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780399590856"},{"authors":["Deborah Blum"],"book_id":"9780143111122","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780143111122.jpg?v=d7bc34fdcfb4c83b","score":0.6726,"title":"The Poison Squad","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780143111122"},{"authors":["Jane Jacobs"],"book_id":"9780679741954","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780679741954.jpg?v=0d90a2f2d404a666","score":0.6514,"title":"The Death and Life of Great American Cities","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780679741954"},{"authors":["David McCullough"],"book_id":"9780671207144","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780671207144.jpg?v=0773a6ec2781187c","score":0.6491,"title":"Johnstown Flood","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780671207144"},{"authors":["Joy McCullough"],"book_id":"9780593855874","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593855874.jpg?v=c9b5de4fe13bba70","score":0.6483,"title":"Everything Is Poison","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593855874"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:washington post best books of the year"],"label":"Year","score":0.8411,"slug":"year"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:washington post best books of the year"],"label":"Best","score":0.1119,"slug":"best"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:public health"],"label":"Health","score":0.0682,"slug":"health"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:urban politics"],"label":"Politics","score":0.0364,"slug":"politics"},{"evidence_refs":["phrase_map_match"],"label":"Book Club","score":0.0215,"slug":"book-club"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Flint water contamination, Infrastructure neglect, Democratic accountability.","Themes: Year, Health, Politics.","Reading lane: Urban Life and Local Government."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.94,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in Flint’s water crisis and the people affected by it","Readers interested in urban infrastructure and democratic decision-making"],"themes":["Flint water contamination","Infrastructure neglect","Democratic accountability"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":2932,"goodreads_reviews_count":476,"quality_score":0.9324}}