On a summer night in 2013, a runaway train loaded with explosive oil derailed in the small town of Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. One of the deadliest rail disasters in Canadian history, Lac-Mégantic stands as a haunting narrative of how the powerful profit from collective tragedy.

Who are the real culprits of the disaster that claimed 47 lives? In this vivid, full-colour work of graphic nonfiction, award-winning author Anne-Marie Saint-Cerny and illustrator Christian Quesnel trace the path of the locomotive from the scene of the crime all the way back to cowboy producers of Dakota black gold, Wall Street investors, and politicians in the pocket of the billion-dollar oil and gas industry.

With no national public inquiry launched or meaningful criminal charges laid, the victims of Lac-Mégantic must not become mere statistics, nor the survivors left to the mercy of predatory developers and financial interests. Now the full story of that infamous night and its aftermath live on — and illustrate the true human cost of unfettered capitalism.

Saint-Cerny is a writer, activist and videographer based in Quebec. Her book Mégantic was shortlisted for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction.

Christian Quesnel is an author and comic, graphic novel and children's book illustrator from Saint-Andre-Avellin, Que.

W. Donald Wilson is a translator from Waterloo, Ont.