A Harvest of Thorns Review

Posted by abakersp in Contemporary / 0 Comments

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About the Book

A beloved American corporation with an explosive secret.

A disgraced former journalist looking for redemption.

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.

My Perspective

This book is different than my normal type of book, but I was determined to give it a try. I appreciated the headers for each chapter, without them I may have been a little lost, especially with the jump in time between sections of the book. The way the book was presented was interesting. Going between Joshua and Cameron, and then combining them brought more depth to the story.

It is obvious that the author is an attorney by the way he presented the laws and legal terminology, which is important in this kind of story. Equally important is presenting them in a way that a non-attorney can understand which I felt the author was able to do well. It did not make me feel inadequate when reading and I was able to easily follow along.

With an interesting storyline that makes you take a step back and think, I recommend giving this book a try, even if it is outside of your comfort zone. It may make you think more about the clothes you have, where they came from, and the working conditions involved. It certainly made me! I received a complimentary copy of this book through Fiction Guild. I was not required to write a favorable review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.