Five Past Midnight in Bhopal by Dominique; Moro Javier LaPierre,Javier Moro

It was December 3, 1984. In the ancient city of Bhopal, a cloud of toxic gas escaped from an American pesticide plant, killing and injuring thousands of people. When the noxious clouds cleared, the worst industrial disaster in history had taken place. Now, Dominique Lapierre brings the hundreds of characters, conflicts, and adventures together in an unforgettable tale of love and hope. Readers will meet the poetry-loving factory worker who unleashes the apocalypse, the young Indian bride who was to be married that terrible night, and the doctors who died that night saving others. It is a gripping, fascinating account that is already mesmerizing readers around the world. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly As with Lapierre's City of Hope, this latest project, co-written with Spanish travel writer and journalist Moro (The Jaipur Foot), is part historical documentation and part dramatization, a modern fable depicting the communities that weathered the effects of early globalization in India. After DDT was banned in 1973, American chemical giant Union Carbide began to push Sevin, a pesticide that calls for highly toxic and unstable ingredients in its production. They built a processing plant in Bhopal, India, where a combination of poor supervision and penny-pinching tactics eventually led to the world's worst industrial disaster: on December 3, 1984, the plant sprung a leak during routine maintenance procedures. The resulting noxious vapors killed between 16,000 and 30,000 and left 500,000 permanently injured. As Lapierre and Moro recount the disaster, they weave in the story of a family of peasants forced to leave their farmland and move to the Bhopal region, where their fate intersected tragically with that of the plant. The moral of the story is familiar (what's good for Union Carbide is not so good for the world), but it still packs a bitterly ironic punch. With their canned dialogue and patronizing tone, the close-ups of Indian life are not as effective as the authors' straightforward history of the accident. Nevertheless, the inherent drama of the story keeps the pages turning, and its lessons make the book well worth picking up. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate paperback edition. Amazon.com Review On the night of December 3, 1984, a cyanide cloud drifted over the streets of Bhopal, India, set loose by a leak in a nearby chemical plant. When the deadly fog lifted untold numbers of the city's residents--perhaps as many as 30,000, by some accounts--lay dead, while half a million others were injured. Dominique Lapierre, a French journalist and longtime champion of India's poor, joins with Spanish writer Javier Moro to recount the terrors of that night, about which the whole truth may never be known. The deaths are but one part of the authors' long, sometimes elaborate tale, which relates how the industrial conglomerate Union Carbide had come to build its vast chemical complex at Bhopal, one meant to be a glory of technology and, ironically, to save thousands of lives brought low by insect-wrought starvation. There are few villains but many heroes in the authors' account, which explores the margins at which good intentions conflict with the profit motive, at which cost-cutting omissions yield horrifically unintended consequences. It all makes for a thoughtful and disturbing book. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an alternate paperback edition. From Booklist On December 3, 1984, there was a leak at the Union Carbideplant in Bhopal, India. Toxic gas, the by-product of a routinemaintenance operation that was improperly carried out, spread over thecity. Between 15,000 and 30,000 people would die especially gruesomedeaths. Another 500,000 would be injured, their lives foreverscarred. Nearly two decades later, the region surrounding the defunctplant is contaminated; the children of the area are prone to birthdefects; and cancer and diseases brought on by faulty immune systemsare rampant. This is the first in-depth chronicle of the event, toldfrom the points of view of the men and women of Bhopal--plant workers,their relatives, their friends. Lapierre, whose books include TheCity of Joy (1985), teams up with Moro, a noted Spanish writer andjournalist (and Lapierre's nephew), to produce a book that neatlybalances the human story with the technical explanation of thedisaster. Spink's translation from the French is smooth andnatural. The authors' three-year investigation into the Bhopaldisaster has produced a wealth of information. The maintenance errorthat caused the gas leak, for example, had previously occurred atanother plant. One caveat: the authors spend a great deal of time onthe period leading up to the disaster, which does not occur untilnearly three-quarters of the way through the book. This is notnecessarily a flaw, but it does mean that the period following theleak seems superficially covered by comparison. This minor quibbleaside, the book--which has already received solid reviews in France,Spain, and Italy--is an excellent examination of an event that, almost20 years later, is still making headlines. David Pitt Copyright ? American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate paperback edition. Review A beautifully written, humane account of the horrific Bhopal chemical accident - the most murderous industrial accident in history - from the bestselling author of City of Joy. --This text refers to an alternate paperback edition. About the Author DOMINIQUE LAPIERRE is the author of numerous international bestselling books including IS PARIS BURNING? and CITY OF JOY, several of which have been made into films. A humanitarian and philanthropist, Lapierre and his wife provide sole support for a network of relief programmes throughout India. JAVIER MORO has worked with producers such as Ridley Scott and is the author of THE FOOT OF JAIPUR and THE MOUNTAINS OF BUDDHA. --This text refers to an alternate paperback edition.