Mill Town

Mill Town: A Memoir of Love and Loss in an American Community Torn Apart by Toxicity and Disease
Mill Town is a powerful work of narrative nonfiction, investigative memoir, and cultural criticism that illuminates the rise and collapse of the working-class in a small Maine town. For over a century, the community of Mexico, Maine revolved around a paper mill that provided jobs for nearly everyone, including three generations of author Kerri Arsenault's family. While the mill brought social and economic cohesion, it also contributed to the town's demise through pollution and toxic waste.
Arsenault's book is a deep-drilling, quick-moving, heartbreaking story that explores the hazards of loving and leaving home, and the ambiguous nature of toxics and disease. At its heart is the question: Who or what are we willing to sacrifice for our own survival?
Mill Town has been honored with the 2021 Rachel Carson Environmental Book Award, the 2021 Maine Literary Award for Nonfiction, and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Critics John Leonard Prize for Best First Book, the 2021 New England Society Book Award, and the 2021 New England Independent Booksellers Association Award. It was also an editors' choice in The New York Times and a top book of 2020 for the Chicago Tribune.