The Big Truck That Went By: How the World Came to Save Haiti and Left Behind a Disaster

WITH A NEW AFTERWORD BY THE AUTHORA PEN LITERARY AWARD FINALIST Winner, Overseas Press Club of America Cornelius Ryan AwardWinner, Washington Office on Latin America/Duke Human Rights Book AwardWinner, J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress AwardFinalist, PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for NonfictionFinalist, J. Anthony Lukas Book PrizeFinalist, New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in JournalismOne of the best books of the year according to Amazon, Slate, The Christian Science Monitor & Kirkus Reviews, and a Barnes & Noble 'Discover Great New Writers' Book
Published to glowing reviews, The Big Truck That Went By is a crucial look at a signal failure of international aid.

Jonathan M. Katz was the only full-time American news correspondent in Haiti on January 12, 2010, when the deadliest earthquake in the history of the Western Hemisphere struck the island nation. In this visceral first-hand account, Katz takes readers inside the terror of that day, the devastation visited on ordinary Haitians, and through the monumental--yet misbegotten--rescue effort that followed.
More than half of American adults gave money for Haiti, part of a global response totaling $16.3 billion in pledges. But four years later the effort has foundered. Its most important promises-to rebuild safer cities, alleviate severe poverty, and strengthen Haiti to face future disasters-remain unfulfilled. How did so much generosity amount to so little? What went wrong? In what a Miami Herald Op-Ed called "the most important written work to emerge from the rubble," Katz follows the money to uncover startling truths about how good intentions go wrong, and what can be done to make aid "smarter." Reporting alongside Bill Clinton, Wyclef Jean, Sean Penn, and Haiti's leaders and people, Katz creates a complex, darkly funny, and unexpected portrait of one of the world's most fascinating countries. The Big Truck That Went By is not only a definitive account of Haiti's earthquake, but of the world we live in today.