Introduction

***2013 Eric Hoffer Award Finalist***
***Independent Publisher Awards: 2012 Silver, Best Regional Fiction–Mid-Atlantic***
***National Indie Excellence Awards: 2012 WINNER-- Literary Fiction***

Historic, environmental drama wrapped in a love story...

It's 1948 in the steel town of Donora, Pennsylvania, site of the infamous “killing smog.” Public health nurse, Rose Pavlesic, has risen above her orphaned upbringing and created a life that reflects everything she missed as a child. She’s even managed to keep her painful secrets hidden from her doting husband, loving children, and large extended family.

When a stagnant weather pattern traps poisonous mill gasses in the valley, neighbors grow sicker and Rose’s nursing obligations thrust her into conflict she never could have fathomed. Consequences from her past collide with her present life, making her once clear decisions as gray as the suffocating smog. As pressure mounts, Rose finds she’s not the only one harboring lies. When the deadly fog finally clears, the loss of trust and faith leaves the Pavlesic family—and the whole town—splintered and shocked. With her new perspective, can Rose finally forgive herself and let her family’s healing begin?

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Excerpt

Author’s Note

During the week of October 24th, 1948, Donora, Pennsylvania, experienced an environmental disaster that drew the nation’s attention. The events of that week brought tragedy to the great steel town and transformed the way the world viewed industrial pollution and its effect on the environment and public health. Although the characters and their plotlines in this novel are fictional, the disaster is not. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. Discuss Rose’s ability to connect with patients of all walks of life, but her difficulty in being “intimate” with those closest to her.

2. Discuss the way Rose’s upbringing influenced the way she plotted her life and expected others to live.

3. Discuss the role of community/public health nurses and how you see them fitting into society.

4. How was the way the citizens of Donora were reluctant to discuss the five days of fog with the survey-takers surprising?

5. Discuss the way people become so accustomed to a certain standard of living that they don’t recognize danger.

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