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

by Lapierre, Dominique; Moro, Javier

• ISBN13: 9780446530880
• ISBN10: 0446530883
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-06-03
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Summary

Dominique Lapierre, author of the international bestseller City of Joy, chronicles the unforgettable story of the tragic industrial accident in Bhopal, India, that killed nearly 30,000 people.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.

Author Biography

Dominique Lapierre is coauthor of Freedom at Midnight and The Fifth Horseman, among others. His solo works include Beyond Love and A Thousand Suns Javier Moro is the author of The Foot of Jaipur and The Mountains of the Buddha

Table of Contents

Letter to the Reader	xvii
Map of the City of Bhopal	xx
Part One. A New Star in the Indian Sky	1	(170)
Firecrackers That Kill Cows That Die Insects That Murder	3	(14)
The Planetary Holocaust Wrought by Armies of Ravaging Insects	17	(6)
A Neighborhood Called Orya Bustee	23	(8)
A Visionary Billionaire to the Rescue of Humanity's Food	31	(6)
Three Zealots on the Banks of the Hudson	37	(4)
The Daily Heroism of the People of the Bustees	41	(6)
An American Valley That Ruled the World	47	(6)
A Little Mouse under the Seats of Bhopal's Trains	53	(6)
A Poison That Smelled Like Boiled Cabbage	59	(6)
They Deserved the Mercy of God	65	(6)
``A Hand for the Future''	71	(8)
A Promised Land on the Ruins of a Legendary Kingdom	79	(4)
A Continent of Three Hundred Million Peasants and Six Hundred Languages	83	(6)
Some Very Peculiar Pimps	89	(8)
A Plant as Inoffensive as a Chocolate Factory	97	(10)
A New Star in the Indian Sky	107	(6)
``They'll Never Dare Send in Their Bulldozers''	113	(8)
Wages of Fear on the Roads of Maharashtra	121	(8)
The Lazy Poets' Circle	129	(8)
``Carbide Has Poisoned Our Water!''	137	(10)
The First Deadly Drops from the Beautiful Plant	147	(4)
Three Tanks Dressed up for a Carnival	151	(8)
Half a Million Hours of Work and Not a Day Lost	159	(6)
Everlasting Roots in the Black Earth of the Kali Grounds	165	(6)
Part Two. A Night Blessed by the Stars	171	(96)
A Gas That Makes You Laugh Before It Kills You	173	(10)
``You Will Be Reduced to Dust''	183	(8)
Ali Baba's Treasure for the Heroes of the Kali Grounds	191	(8)
The Sudden Arrival of a Cost-Cutting Gentleman	199	(8)
``My Beautiful Plant Was Losing Its Soul''	207	(8)
The Fiances of the Orya Bustee	215	(8)
The End of a Young Indian's Dream	223	(6)
The Vengeance of the People of the Kali Grounds	229	(14)
Festivities That Set Hearts Ablaze	243	(4)
A Sunday Unlike Any Other	247	(10)
A Night Blessed by the Stars	257	(10)
Part Three. Three Sarcophagi under the Moon	267	(108)
Three Sarcophagi under the Moon	269	(8)
``What if the Stars Were to Go on Strike?''	277	(10)
Geysers of Death	287	(8)
Lungs Bursting in the Heart of the Night	295	(12)
``Something Beyond All Comprehension''	307	(16)
``All Hell Has Broken Loose Here!''	323	(12)
A Half Naked Holy Man in the Heart of a Deadly Cloud	335	(10)
The Dancing Girl Was Not Dead	345	(12)
``Death to the Killer Anderson!''	357	(10)
``Carbide Has Made Us the Center of the World''	367	(8)
Epilogue	375	(16)
What Became of Them	391	(6)
``All That Is Not Given Is Lost''	397