About a Mountain

By: John D'Agata

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Paperback | 1 February 2011 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
240 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
2.1 x 1.4 x 0.16

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In About a Mountain, John D'Agata finds himself in Las Vegas, where he is helping his mother move into a new home. Here he begins to follow a discomfiting story in the news - the U.S. government's plan to store massive stockpiles of radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, a long desert range one hundred miles from the Las Vegas strip. D'Agata travels from the city of Las Vegas's 100-year anniversary parade to a tour of the ominous Yucca Mountain. He examines the brief life and uncontrolled growth of Las Vegas against the ten thousand-year life span of a nuclear dump. But D'Agata's investigation turns inevitably personal when, alongside Yucca's story, he finds himself looking into the death of a teenager who jumped off the tower of the landmark Stratosphere Hotel and Casino, a boy whom he has convinced himself he spoke with just before the suicide.

Industry Reviews

"D'Agata's distinctive narrative rhythms, melancholy wit, and keen perception of the social facade and the toxic darkness it conceals make for an acid test, and a ballad about the endless enigmas of humankind." -- Donna Seaman - Booklist "The book's connections dawn on you like a reverberating rhyme in a poem." -- Matthew Gilbert - Boston Globe "When you're reading D'Agata, you're in such thrall to the dizzying literary risks he takes ... you can't help but be thrilled." -- William L. Fox - Las Vegas Weekly "This is what, at its best, contemporary narrative nonfiction aspires to, a story that, like the novel, operates on many levels at once." -- David Ulin - Los Angeles Times

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