The New York Times - Parul Sehgal
What the Eyes Don't See…is a stirring and personal account by the Flint pediatrician who first presented unequivocal proof that children were being poisoned. Her book reads like true crime…For all her doggedness, Hanna-Attisha is a goofy, appealing, very human narrator…The crisis becomes personalized through the stories of her patients and their parents, and through her horrified recollections of her initial passivity.
The New York Times Book Review - Jeff Goodell
…gripping…Hanna-Attisha is a chatty and entertaining narrator…Her book has power precisely because she takes the events she recounts so personally…A great virtue of [What the Eyes Don't See] is the moral outrage present on every page. "There are lots of villains in this story," she says with refreshing bluntness, and she goes after many of them, from the…mayor of Flint to the public-health officials who claimed that ensuring safe drinking water was not their responsibility.
From the Publisher
A stirring and personal account . . . For all her doggedness, Hanna-Attisha is a goofy, appealing, very human narrator. . . . Hers is the book I’d recommend to those coming to the issue for the first time; the crisis becomes personalized through the stories of her patients and their parents.”—Parul Sehgal, The New York Times
“The Iraqi American pediatrician who helped expose the Flint water crisis lays bare the bureaucratic bunk and flat-out injustice at the heart of the environmental disgrace—revealing, with the gripping intrigue of a Grisham thriller, ‘the story of a government poisoning its own citizens, and then lying about it.’”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“It’s one thing to point out a problem. It is another thing altogether to step up and work to fix it. Mona Hanna-Attisha is a true American hero.”—Erin Brockovich
“A clarion call to live a life of purpose.”—The Washington Post
“Gripping . . . entertaining . . . Her book has power precisely because she takes the events she recounts so personally. . . . Moral outrage present on every page.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Personal and emotional. . . She vividly describes the effects of lead poisoning on her young patients. . . . She is at her best when recounting the detective work she undertook after a tip-off about lead levels from a friend. . . . ‛Flint will not be defined by this crisis,’ vows Ms. Hanna-Attisha.”—The Economist
“Flint is a public health disaster. But it was Dr. Mona, this caring, tough pediatrician turned detective, who cracked the case.”—Rachel Maddow
“Mona Hanna-Attisha’s account of that urban man-made disaster reads both as a detective story and as an exposé of government corruption. . . . Her book’s message is that we each have the power to fix things, to make the world safer by opening one another’s eyes to problems. Her book reinforced my belief that the first step to becoming a citizen activist is seeing the world as it should be, not as it is given to you.”—The Seattle Times
“Essential for all readers who care about children, health, and the environment. This should be required reading for public servants as an incisive cautionary tale, and for pediatricians and youth advocates as a story of heroism in the ranks of people who have the capacity to make a difference.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“She is an unlikely hero—a pediatrician who went up against the forces responsible for poisoning an American city, my hometown of Flint, Michigan. Yet because of her gentle but unrelenting perseverance, she brought the world’s attention to this crime. A story of race, greed, and a crumbling democracy, What the Eyes Don’t See is a brilliantly written book—may it help save every Flint in this country.”—Michael Moore
“[A] powerful firsthand account . . . Hanna-Attisha’s empathy for her patients and the people of Flint comes through, as do her pride in her Iraqi roots and her persistent optimism. . . . An inspiring work.”—Publishers Weekly
“Told with passion and intelligence, What the Eyes Don’t See is an essential text for understanding the full scope of injustice in Flint and the importance of fighting for what’s right.”—Booklist (starred review)
Kirkus Reviews
2018-05-01
"There are lots of villains in this story": An Iraqi immigrant and pediatrician recounts the epidemiological sleuthing that uncovered the lead crisis in the drinking water of Flint, Michigan.The story begins with people turning up sick. But more, longtime Michigander and physician Hanna-Attisha's story begins in a political moment, when a tea party-dominated state legislature and a former business executive elected governor declared a state of fiscal emergency over the city of Flint. As she notes, Flint was not alone in having its democratically elected government replaced by a technocrat imposed from outside—and those that shared the distinction were far likelier to be areas where African-Americans lived, "effectively colonized by the state." A budgetary shortcut was to change Flint's source of drinking water from Lake Huron to the Flint River, long used for dumping industrial waste. Bacteria was one thing, but high concentrations of lead quite another. Drinking Flint River water was "like drinking through a lead painted straw," with resulting developmental delays and cognitive damage that will plague Flint for generations. Hanna-Attisha combined a background in environmental science and medicine to expose a multilayered conspiracy of crony capitalism involving the lead industry, which she likens to big tobacco in greed and damage, and allies in government and business. Along the way, she notes that medicine itself is not blameless, since older pediatricians in particular have assumed that the old problems of lead poisoning that plagued previous generations have gone away with regulatory changes. Not so, she writes, particularly if you are poor and a member of an ethnic minority. Making this story known proved a challenge, but the author and her allies were methodical in approaching professional journals, the press, and finally federal authorities with their evidence. In the end, writes Hanna-Attisha, this is "the story of a government poisoning its own citizens, and then lying about it"—and it demands greater justice than has been served.An important contribution to the literature of environmental activism—and environmental racism.
