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.

Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny has been a social and environmental activist in various NGOs for over thirty-five years. Videographer, essayist, and novelist, her book-length piece of investigative journalism Mégantic, Une tragédie annoncée (Éditions Écosociété, 2018) was in its original French edition the winner of the 2018 prix Pierre-Vadeboncoeur, a finalist for the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Awards for Non-Fiction, and was listed for the 2019 Prix des libraires.Saint-Cerny participated in the launch of the NGO Fondation Rivières, where she served as vice-president and then general manager, opposing private dams, the harnessing of the Rupert and Romaine Rivers, and campaigning for the preservation of vital watercourses.Since 2008, as general manager of the Société pour vaincre la pollution (SVP), she has been involved in several investigations on instances of ecological contamination by large corporations, notably the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster and several Canadian mining projects. In 2018, she co-founded Québec’s Association des victimes de l’amiante (AVAQ). She was also present in Lac-Mégantic during the full aftermath of the rail disaster and has supported the actions of victims and local committees since 2013. She was the Green Party’s 2015 federal candidate for the riding Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

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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.

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