Water, Inc.

Water, Inc.

by VardaBurstyn (Author)

Synopsis

Years of drought have given the United States a terrible thirst and turned water into blue gold. A powerful agrichemical magnate and corporate visionary, William Greele, puts a consortium together to pipe water down from northern Quebec. Politicians and federal security agencies ride shotgun for him at home, while in Quebec his path is - and covered - by a brilliant, existentially torn deputy minister. Stealth and deception are crucial to the project's success. But Malcolm Macpherson, a Seattle aerospace executive and conservationist, finds out about the pipeline. Appalled, he appeals to rebel-girl Claire Davidowicz, director of eco-Justice USA to stop it. Soon they've enlisted a Quebec law professor, a feisty British journalist, three rogue policemen, a reluctant eco-terrorist, and a maverick Vermont governor. It's a heart-pounding, deadly race as they desperately try to figure out how to save the continent - and their own lives - before it's too late. When water scarcity and water wars have become menacing realities, Water Inc. is and exquisitely timed political thriller. Ranging across the US, into the cities and beautiful wilderness of Quebec, and reaching as far as Mexico, Lisbon, and Brussels, it's a tale of greed, heroism, clashing loyalties, love, and mortal risk.

$5.93

Save:$10.49 (64%)

Quantity

1 in stock

More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Verso Books
Published: 15 Feb 2005

ISBN 10: 1859845967
ISBN 13: 9781859845967

Media Reviews
Varda Burstyn's Water Inc. is a wild and woolly wake-up call for a planet hell-bent on squandering its natural resources ... a first novel that thrills and chills and ultimately spills the beans on the fresh water shortage barrelling our way... - Brad Smith, finalist for the Dashiell Hamett Award for One-Eyed Jacks and the Arthur Ellis Award for crime fiction for All Hat A smart, sexy, witty, and hard-hitting eco thriller ... Alluring characters and a careening plot provide shivery pleasures as Burstyn orchestrates a galvanising introduction to a looming global crisis. - Booklist A prescient and illuminating thriller. ... What starts out as a leisurely piece of ecological skulduggery becomes more and more shivering through the sheer venality of corporate greedsters and governmental egomaniacs and the tactics they use to sate their avarice. It all has to do with water: good old H2O, without which life ceases and which in pure copious quantities is becoming a rarer commodity day by day. And commodity is the catchword in Burstyn's cracking tale about privatising water resources for agriculture and industry and a $22-billion-a-year bottled-water industry (unregulated, Burstyn notes in one of her many handy environmental asides, so that the bottled stuff is often no safer or healthier than that from the tap) ... A flustering cautionary tale ... rolling with intrigue and suspense. - Kirkus
Author Bio
Varda Burstyn is an award-winning author who has written for film, television, radio and scholarly publications. She is a life-long environmentalist who has lived in Israel, the United States and France, and now divides her time between Toronto and southern Quebec. This is her first novel.