When the people of Flint, Michigan, complained that their tap water smelled bad and made children sick, it took officials 18 months to accept there was a problem.

The author on his reverence for water.

The journey of a river from source to mouth resembles our own journey from birth to death, an analogy oft remarked, and yet the beginnings and endings of rivers are as fictional as those we impose on stories. There are headwaters to headwaters and no river ever really ends.

Flint residents mold their lives around a perpetual water crisis and endless unanswerable questions.

“The crisis in Flint isn’t over. It’s everywhere.”

A writer returns home to find a toxic disaster, giant government failure, and countless children exposed to lead.

“They played a game of chess with our lives and we lost.”

A couple tries to give away their house in Flint, Michigan – but no one wants to live there anymore.