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list price: $24.95
edition:Paperback
category: Law
published: Aug 2020
ISBN:9781772012590
publisher: Talonbooks

Megantic

by Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny, translated by W. Donald Wilson

tagged: transportation, post-confederation (1867-), corruption & misconduct, disasters & disaster relief, environmental conservation & protection
Description

Lac-Mégantic, Québec, Canada – July 6, 2013. On a hot summer night, a driverless, out-of-control train descends the slope that leads to the scenic town below and explodes, pulverizing the downtown area and killing forty-seven unsuspecting victims. The devastation, which leaves the people of Lac-Mégantic dazed and in mourning, is quickly the object of a tortuous cover-up. Who are the tragedy’s real culprits?

 

In this fascinating piece of investigative journalism, which unfolds like a thriller, Saint-Cerny reveals the inner workings of the 2013 Lac-Mégantic rail disaster. She uncovers how the disaster, far from being just an "error of a faulty system," was caused by powerful people and institutions distant from the town itself.

 

The tragedy of Lac-Mégantic began far before the train’s brakes failed; it was conceived in the offices of Wall Street hedge funders, of Dakota black-gold cowboy magnates, of oil conglomerates, of a political class entirely devoted to the interests of the rail industry. And when it struck, it hit a population which, while still in shock, found itself at the mercy of local predators.

The fruit of five years of work and interviews with nearly a hundred people, including victims and their relatives, Mégantic: A Tragedy in Waiting, tells the story of the disaster in three acts – before, during, and after – in an investigation whose ultimate goal is to prevent the preventable.

About the Authors

Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny

Author, researcher, and activist Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny arrived at the site of the Lac-Mégantic tragedy five days after it occurred. Her book-length piece of investigative journalism, Mégantic: A Deadly Mix of Oil, Rail, and Avarice (Talonbooks, 2020), was in its original French edition the winner of the 2018 prix Pierre-Vadeboncœur, a finalist for the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Awards for Non-Fiction, and listed for the 2019 Prix des libraires. She has been a social and environmental activist in various NGOs for over thirty-five years. She lives in Val-David, Quebec.


W. Donald Wilson holds a degree in modern languages from Trinity College, Dublin, where he also completed a Ph.D. in French literature. He has taught at universities in the West Indies, the United Kingdom, and at the University of Waterloo. In 2011 and 2013, two of Wilson’s translations were long-listed for the Best Translated Book Award in the United States, and in 2013 he was a finalist for the French-American Foundation translation prize.
Contributor Notes

Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny is a Canadian writer and political activist from Quebec. She is most noted for her 2018 book Mégantic: Une tragédie annoncée, an examination of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster of 2013, which was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for French-language non-fiction at the 2018 Governor General's Awards. She previously published the Zan series of children's books, as well as the novel La jouissance du loup à l'instant de mordre. She was a Green Party of Canada candidate in Hochelaga in the 2015 federal election.

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