The Book Prize Index

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation

Dan Fagin

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation is a 2013 nonfiction book by the American author Dan Fagin. It is about the dumping of industrial pollution by chemical companies including Ciba-Geigy, in Toms River, New Jersey, beginning in 1952 through the 1980s, and the epidemiological investigations of a cancer cluster that subsequently emerged there. The book won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, the 2014 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, and the 2014 National Academies Communication Award.

Medicine & Public HealthMedicine & Public Health · medium confidenceMedicine & Public Health81 signalsLlm Classifier: Medicine & Public Health -> Medicine & Public HealthKeyword Classifier: American History -> American HistoryAward Category: Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism -> Journalism & ReportageScience & Discovery

Award History

3 wins · 3 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Pulitzer Prize in General NonfictionMajor2014WinnerSecondary source
Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism2014WinnerSecondary source
Rachel Carson Environment Book Award2014WinnerOfficial source
View all award history (3)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  2. 02 Central places

    • Toms River, New Jersey90%

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    30 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 74%.