DAY THE EARTH CAVED IN, THE

BeginningonValentine’sDay,1981,whentwelve-year-oldToddDomboskiplungedthroughtheearthinhisgrandmother’sbackyardinCentralia,Pennsylvania,TheDaytheEarthCavedInisanunprecedentedandrivetingaccountofthenation’sworstminefire.Inastonishingdetail,award-winningjournalistJoanQuigley,thegranddaughterofCentraliaminers,ushersreadersintothedramaticworldoftheundergroundblaze.Drawingoninterviewswithkeyparticipantsandexclusivenewresearch,QuigleypaintsunforgettableportraitsofCentraliaanditsresidents,fromTomLarkin,theshort-ordercookandex-hippiewhoralliedtheactivists,toHelenWomer,thebanktellerwhogalvanizedtheopposition,denyingthefire’sexistenceevenastoxicfumesinvadedherhome.LikeJonathanHarr’sACivilAction,TheDaytheEarthCavedInisaseminalinvestigationofindividualrights,corporateprivilege,andgovernmentalindifferencetothepowerless.