Civil Action

Zusatztext "Whether in truth or fiction! I have never read a more compelling chronicle of litigation." --John Grisham "A page-turner. Rich and vivid. . . eventful and gripping." -- The New York Times "Once you start A Civil Action ! you probably will not be able to put it down." -- Washington Post Book World Informationen zum Autor JONATHAN HARR is the author of the national bestseller A Civil Action , winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and The Lost Painting , a New York Times bestseller. He is a former staff writer at the New England Monthly and has written for The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine . He lives and works in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he has taught nonfiction writing at Smith College. Klappentext This true story of an epic courtroom showdown, where two of the nation's largest corporations were accused of causing the deaths of children from water contamination, was a #1 national bestseller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Described as "a page-turner filled with greed, duplicity, heartache, and bare-knuckle legal brinksmanship by The New York Times, A Civil Action is the searing, compelling tale of a legal system gone awry-one in which greed and power fight an unending struggle against justice. Yet it is also the story of how one man can ultimately make a difference. Representing the bereaved parents, the unlikeliest of heroes emerges: a young, flamboyant Porsche-driving lawyer who hopes to win millions of dollars and ends up nearly losing everything, including his sanity. With an unstoppable narrative power reminiscent of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, A Civil Action is an unforgettable reading experience that will leave the reader both shocked and enlightened. A Civil Action was made into a movie starring John Travolta and Robert Duvall. Leseprobe The lawyer Jan Schlichtmann was awakened by the telephone at eight-thirty on a Saturday morning in mid-July. He had slept only a few hours, and fitfully at that. When the phone rang, he was dreaming about a young woman who worked in the accounting department of a Boston insurance firm. The woman had somber brown eyes, a clear complexion, and dark shoulder-length hair. Every working day for the past five months the woman had sat across from Schlichtmann in the courtroom, no more than ten feet away. In five months Schlichtmann had not uttered a single word directly to her, nor she to him. He had heard her voice once, the first time he'd seen her, but he could no longer remember what it sounded like. When their eyes had happened to meet, each had been careful to convey nothing of import, to make the gaze neutral, and to shift it away as quickly as possible without causing insult. The woman was a juror. Schlichtmann hoped that she liked and trusted him. He wanted desperately to know what she was thinking. In his dream, he stood with her in a dense forest, overgrown with branches and roots and vines. Behind the woman were several people whose faces Schlichtmann recognized, the other jurors. The woman was trying to decide which path in the forest to take and Schlichtmann was attempting to point the direction. He beseeched her. She remained undecided. A dream of obvious significance, and unresolved when the phone rang and Schlichtmann awoke, enveloped by a sense of dread. The man on the phone identified himself as an officer at Baybank South Shore, where Schlichtmann had an automobile loan that was several months in arrears. Unless Schlichtmann was prepared to pay the amount due--it came to $9,203--the bank intended to repossess the car, a black Porsche 928. Schlichtmann had no idea whether or not Baybank South Shore had been paid in the last several months, but on reflection he felt pretty certain it had not. He told the banker to speak with a man nam...

Über den Autor / die Autorin

JONATHAN HARR is the author of the national bestseller A Civil Action, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and The Lost Painting, a New York Times bestseller. He is a former staff writer at the New England Monthly and has written for The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine. He lives and works in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he has taught nonfiction writing at Smith College.

Produktdetails

• Autoren: Jonathan Harr
• Mitarbeit: Marty Asher (Herausgeber), Jonathan Harr (Herausgeber)
• Verlag: Vintage USA
• Sprache: Englisch
• Produktform: Taschenbuch
• Erschienen: 27.08.1996
• EAN: 9780679772675
• ISBN: 978-0-679-77267-5
• Seiten: 512
• Abmessung: 132 mm x 202 mm x 22 mm
• Serie: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Thema: Naturwissenschaften, Medizin, Informatik, Technik > Biologie > Ökologie