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Summary
Summary
A beloved American corporation with an explosive secret. A disgraced former journalist looking for redemption. And a corporate executive with nothing left to lose.
In Dhaka, Bangladesh, a garment factory burns to the ground, claiming the lives of hundreds of workers, mostly young women. Amid the rubble, a bystander captures a heart-stopping photograph--a teenage girl lying in the dirt, her body broken by a multi-story fall, and over her mouth a mask of fabric bearing the label of one of America's largest retailers, Presto Omnishops Corporation.
Eight thousand miles away at Presto's headquarters in Virginia, Cameron Alexander, the company's long-time general counsel, watches the media coverage in horror, wondering if the damage can be contained. When the photo goes viral, fanning the flames of a decades-old controversy about sweatshops, labor rights, and the ethics of globalization, he launches an investigation into the disaster that will reach further than he could ever imagine--and threaten everything he has left in the world.
A year later in Washington DC, Joshua Griswold, a disgraced former journalist from the Washington Post, receives an anonymous summons from a corporate whistleblower who offers him confidential information about Presto and the fi re. For Griswold, the challenge of exposing Presto's culpability is irresistible, as is the chance, however slight, at redemption. Deploying his old journalistic skills, he builds a historic case against Presto, setting the stage for a war in the courtroom and in the media that Griswold is determined to win--both to salvage his reputation and to provoke a revolution in Presto's boardroom that could transform the fashion industry across the globe.
Praise for Harvest of Thorns:
"This exposé of the underbelly of the international fashion industry is disturbing, moving, and thoroughly engrossing." --Phillip Margolin, New York Times bestselling author of Violent Crimes
"A must-read book which uncovers what lies behind what we wear every single day. I promise that you will never be able to look at your clothes the same way again." - Livia Firth, OXFAM Global Ambassador, UN Leader of Change, and Founder of Eco Age LTD
"This is a poignant and engrossing description of the manner in which men and women from the poorest countries on the globe are pressed into working for slave wages to manufacture soft goods to be sold in the most affluent counties in North America and Europe. Corban Addison will hold you spellbound with his elegant prose from his first word to his last." - Wilbur Smith, worldwide bestselling author
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this condemning portrayal of the endemic abuses that undergird the international fashion industry, Addison (Tears of the Dark Water) takes the reader on a journey across the world, tracking a brand of clothing from retailer to distributor to manufacturer to sweatshop factory. In a news image gone viral, a pair of pants bearing the label of mega-retailer Presto Omnishops is seen wrapped around the face of a young Bangladeshi girl-the victim of a tragic fall during a building fire in her workplace, where clothing orders from Presto were fulfilled. Facing international scandal and falling market shares, Presto tasks their attorney, Cameron Alexander, to investigate. His thorough efforts uncover a massive level of corruption and willful corporate blindness to the labor trafficking upon which the company's profits rest. Then, a year later, investigative journalist Joshua Griswold receives a tip from a whistle-blower inside Presto. With that information he builds a case that heads to the courtroom to expose corporate malfeasance from the lowest manager up to the board of directors. In this incisive, necessary book, readers accompany the investigators to the slums of Bangladesh and Malaysia back to the retail stores of America, learning with them the true price of cheap clothing. Through his broad, intelligent research and insightful writing, Addison prods the conscience, trumpeting justice while acknowledging that the cost of a globalized society is incalculably higher than the price of a T-shirt. Agent: Dan Raines, Creative Trust. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Library Journal Review
After a deadly fire in a Bangladeshi sweatshop, a photograph of a dead factory girl wearing a face mask labeled Presto -Omnishops Corporation goes viral and ignites outrage. Cameron Alexander, the general counsel for the large clothing manufacturer, investigates the disaster, risking his life as he learns some grim realities about worker abuse and corporate responsibility. Meanwhile, ambitious journalist Joshua Griswold is looking for a break to restore his career. After a whistleblower tips him off about some damaging information, Joshua compiles a case against Presto. The potential ramifications draw enormous media attention and shine a spotlight on the garment industry as a whole, and Presto in particular. VERDICT Addison (The Tears of Dark Water) crafts a stunning legal thriller that will immerse readers in its South Asian setting and fascinating characters. Its focus on workers rights and social justice is also bound to have crossover appeal for readers of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and histories of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.