And the cycle continues unabated as coal companies bury the most insidious dangers deep underground, all in search of higher profits, and hide the true costs from regulators, unions, and investors alike. These deaths were rooted in the cynical corporate culture of Massey and its notorious former CEO Don Blankenship, and were part of an endless cycle of poverty, exploitation, and environmental abuse that has dominated the Appalachian coalfields since coal was first discovered there. This tragedy was the deadliest mine disaster in the United States in forty years-a disaster that never should have happened. Narrated in four primary and three lesser voices, this compelling saga starkly portrays the mining families' symbiotic, spiritual relationship with nature and their helplessness in dealing with the ruthless men who control their lives.On April 5, 2010, an explosion ripped through Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine, killing twenty-nine coal miners. Their emotional bond is strained by conflicting politics, while their tragic situation is magnified by Rachel's daughter Jackie, who is unaware that Dillon may be her father and ashamed of her ``hillbilly'' roots. Central to the novel is the secret, star-crossed love affair of cousins Dillon Freedman, a fierce union activist, and Rachel Honaker, a practical woman who holds an establishment job as a nurse. Rebels kept in check with threats of violence, impoverished children whose pride is damaged by outsiders' self-satisfied displays of charity, and men who have survived mine-shaft collapses only to succumb to black lung disease populate these pages all must watch as their cherished sites are destroyed by machines that strip the land. In a timeframe reaching from 1930 to the present, Giardina dramatizes the community's-and individual characters'-short-lived victories, overwhelming frustrations and ultimate devastation.
Giardina's powerful sequel to the highly praised Storming Heaven again focuses on Blackberry Creek, a West Virginia coal-mining town targeted for union-busting by coal companies and the federal government.
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