In this riveting account of an area of Appalachia known as the Quiet Zone where cell phones and WiFi are banned, journalist Stephen Kurczy explores the pervasive role of technology in our lives and the innate human need for quiet.

"Captures the complex beauty of a disconnected way of life." -- The Nation

With a new afterword to the paperback edition

Deep in the Appalachian Mountains lies the last truly quiet town in America. Green Bank, West Virginia, is a place at once futuristic and old-fashioned: It's home to the Green Bank Observatory, where astronomers search the depths of the universe using the latest technology, while schoolchildren go without WiFi or iPads. With a ban on all devices emanating radio frequencies that might interfere with the observatory's telescopes, Quiet Zone residents live a life free from constant digital connectivity. But a community that on the surface seems idyllic is a place of contradictions, where the provincial meets the seemingly supernatural and quiet can serve as a cover for something darker.

Stephen Kurczy embedded in Green Bank, making the residents of this small Appalachian village his neighbors. He shopped at the town's general store, attended church services, went target shooting with a seven-year-old, square-danced with the locals, sampled the local moonshine. In The Quiet Zone, he introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters. There is a tech buster patrolling the area for illegal radio waves; "electrosensitives" who claim that WiFi is deadly; a sheriff's department with a string of unsolved murder cases dating back decades; a camp of neo-Nazis plotting their resurgence from a nearby mountain hollow. Amongst them all are the ordinary citizens seeking a simpler way of living. Kurczy asks: Is a less connected life desirable? Is it even possible?

The Quiet Zone is a remarkable work of investigative journalism -- at once a stirring ode to place, a tautly wound tale of mystery, and a clarion call to reexamine the role technology plays in our lives.

• We started tracking this book on June 1, 2021.
• This book was $14.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 65 times in the past 1,635 days.
• The current price of this book is $1.99 last checked 2 hours ago.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on November 21, 2025.
• This book has been $1.99 4 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $18.04 last reached on April 11, 2025.
• This book has been $18.04 one time since we started tracking it.
• This book is currently at its lowest price since we started tracking it.

• Politics & Social SciencesSocial SciencesSociologyRural

• Publication Date: April 16, 2024
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 352 Pages
• File Size: 54 KB