Five Past Midnight in Bhopal: The Epic Story of the World's Deadliest Industrial Disaster - Hardcover

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

DOMINIQUE LAPIERRE has touched many people through his life and work. His first taste of fame followed the summer when he was 17 years old and left Paris with US$30, worked aboard a ship, disembarked in the United States and managed a 30,000-mile jaunt around North America. This adventure led to Lapierre's first best-selling book, A Dollar for a Thousand Miles. Since then, he has continuously searched for new messages and stories. While completing military service in 1954, Lapierre met an American soldier named Larry Collins. An everlasting friendship-and a valuable partnership-sprang from this meeting. Years later, they would collaborate on some of the century's most memorable books including Is Paris Burning?, which was made into a major motion picture boasting 30 international stars;...Or I'll Dress You in Mourning, O Jerusalem, Freedom at Midnight, The Fifth Horseman, books read by millions of readers in more than 30 languages. Lapierre's solo work have been equally impressive. His book Freely on the Soviet Roads was another best-seller, and he followed with Chessman Told Me, a book about the famous convict Caryl Chessman, who confessed to Lapierre before meeting his death at San Quentin. Lapierre's book, Beyond Love, a reconstruction of the discovery of the AIDS virus, was another world best-seller. In 1981, Lapierre founded a humanitarian association rescuing leper children from the slums of Calcutta, which is supported by half the royalties from his literary successes. Lapierre's time in Calcutta gave him still another best-seller, The City of Joy. This book, which was made into a major motion picture starring Patrick Swayze, has sold over seven million copies. It tells the epic survival story of the population of one of India's poorest slums. It was rewarded with the prestigious U.S. literary Christopher Award. While researching in Calcutta, Lapierre became a close associate of Mother Teresa who gave him the exclusive authorization to write a film on her life and the work of her sisters, the Missionaries of Charity. With Geraldine Chaplin playing the role of Mother Teresa, the film Mother Teresa-In the Name of God's Poor was aired, at prime time, on the Family Channel in the U.S. and several European channels. Lapierre's script has been nominated by the prestigious Humanitas Prize for communicating the best values. Lapierre's last book A Thousand Suns is currently a huge best-seller in Europe. It appeared in March 1999 in the U.S. With its royalties, the author has been able to expand his humanitarian action in India to eradicate tuberculosis in over 1,200 villages of the Ganges delta.