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Reviews of
Venice Against the Sea
by John Keahey

"[Keahey]'s clearly animated by a great love for the city, but he also possesses a reporter's healthy skepticism about the deeply politicized state of the debate, as well as an infectious curiosity about how all things Venetian work, and could be made to work better. As a result, ardent Venice preservationists will find precious little consolation in this smoothly written, cautionary account of the far-ranging worldly forces that are pushing one of the world's most magnificent cities ever farther below sea level. " - The Washington Post, April 2, 2002 Click here for the full review.

"For whatever reason, the Adriatic is rising. But what to do about it? Mr. Keahey, after going over the problem and various proposed solutions in often redundant detail, comes to no conclusion of his own. He tells us that today's maintenance efforts -- dredging and repairing canals, raising the city's pavements, shoring up the edges of barrier islands -- are insufficient to keep St. Mark's Square dry without MOSE's floating barriers. But he also notes that the flooding he witnessed on a visit in November 2000, when unusual wind conditions raised the waters of the lagoon higher than those of the Adriatic, would have been even worse had the barriers been in place. So is Mr. Keahey for MOSE or against it? He doesn't say." - The Wall Street Journal, March 8, 2002 Click here for the full review.

" ... it's a well-reported book, and Keahey is a brave man for walking into the labyrinth of Italian politics. There is much good information here about Venice and its problems, and Keahey's take is refreshingly cleareyed: His Venice is far, far from the Tuscan sun, and his history of the city is fascinating." - The Christian Science Monitor, May 2, 2002 Click here for the full review.

"Venice Against the Sea is well-researched and cleanly written ... a report from the front lines about a city that, along with Paris, is itself a work of art. Whether Venice can survive for another millennium won't be known for a good 10 years. That book, still to be written, will, one hopes, have a more upbeat ending than Keahey's" - The Palm Beach (FL) Post, May 5, 2002 Click here for the full review.

"In Venice Against the Sea, Keahey offers a detailed description of what's gone wrong--and explores how the city might be saved, at least temporarily, through innovative engineering. This is a book anybody who has fallen in love with Venice will want to read, yet it issues a stark warning for people in coastal cities all over the world. If sea levels continue to rise, Venice's bleak fate may also be their own." - John Miller/Amazon.com, Jan. 2002 Click here for the full review.

"The legions of Venice lovers will not want to miss Keahey's reality check on Venice's future." - -- Gibert Taylor, Booklist, Jan. 2002. Click here for the full review.

"'Venice is sinking' is no Chicken Little squawk, and journalist Keahey explains why and what is being done (or not being done) to counter the trend in this cogent and fluent piece of urban history." Kirkus Reviews, Dec. 1, 2001. Click here for the full review.

"This informative book examines an urban environmental crisis in the making." PublishersWeekly, Jan. 28, 2002. Click here for the full review.