Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Torched : How a City Was Left to Burn, and the Olympic Rush to Rebuild L.A. - Jonathan Vigliotti

Torched

How a City Was Left to Burn, and the Olympic Rush to Rebuild L.A.

By: Jonathan Vigliotti

Hardcover | 12 May 2026

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $59.99

$49.75

17%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $12.44 with

 or 

Available: 12th May 2026

Preorder. Will ship when available.

CBS News correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti’s searing firsthand account of the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, the failures that fueled the catastrophe, and the high-stakes battle over how the city will rebuild ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games.

In Torched, Vigliotti brings readers inside the inferno that devastated Los Angeles, weaving on-the-ground reporting with the deeper story of how a century of unchecked development and political mismanagement set the stage for disaster. With clarity and verve, he recounts the chaos of the fire, the flawed emergency response, and the human stories of survival and loss in the city he loves.

But this is more than a chronicle of destruction. Vigliotti unravels this catastrophe by placing it within the larger history of Los Angeles, a city that has in many ways been defined by its attraction to reinvention and deference to those who “move fast and break things”—an impulse that now puts it at risk of a short-sighted post-fire rebuild in the run-up to the 2028 Olympic Games. A future that might maximize profits but could potentially do too little to prevent similar disasters in the future or address the rampant inequities this blaze brought to global attention.

Urgent, unflinching, and deeply reported, Torched captures Los Angeles at a turning point—and reveals why its choices matter for us all.

More in Climate Change

Is a River Alive? - Robert Macfarlane

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF
The Breath of the Gods : The History and Future of the Wind - Simon Winchester
Plastic Inc : Big Oil, Big Money and The Plan To Trash Our Future - Beth Gardiner
The Surge : The Race Against the Most Destructive Force in Nature - Jeevan Vasagar
Endling : Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2025 - Maria Reva

RRP $32.99

$26.99

18%
OFF
The Ministry for the Future - Kim Stanley Robinson

RRP $22.99

$20.75

10%
OFF
The Book of Hope : A Survival Guide for an Endangered Planet - Jane Goodall
Urban Climate Change and Heat Islands - Braxton Stewart
Urban Climate Change and Heat Islands - Braxton Stewart
Weather, Climate and Climate Change - Dale Sullivan
Is a River Alive? - Robert Macfarlane

RRP $55.00

$40.75

26%
OFF
The Burning Earth : An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years - Sunil Amrith
How to Blow Up a Pipeline : Learning to Fight in a World on Fire - Andreas Malm