Why a Booktrail?
2000s: John Grisham introduces us to a legal case where a hot shot lawyer goes to work in a small town but ends up finding out very big and deep buried secrets there
Gray Mountain
What you need to know before your trail
Samantha Kofer is a hot shot associate at a Wall street firm..well until the recession hits and she is forced to go and work for a legal aid clinic in the back of beyond – well Brady, Virginia to be precise.
It’s hardly Manhattan – population only just over 2000 and deep in the heart of Appalachia is the kind of place she’s only ever read about until now. Mattie Wyatt, lifelong Brady resident is head of the town’s legal aid clinic, is to be her mentor to help show her how to “help real people with real problems.”
And there is a very real problem indeed, just waiting to be unearthed..
Locations
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From Manhattan to Brady Virginia. Talk about a culture shock. For Samantha moves from her shiny offices on Wall Street to the cosy, small and provincial legal aid clinic of this small town where her career is to take a change of direction if nothing else.
At first the work is not too bad and there is a lot of scope for Samantha as she gets very hands on with her work , right from the prep work to actually seeing the inside of a courtroom. Living and working alongside the locals is also new to her.
The hot shot lawyer is the big fish in the small pond – and some of the locals aren’t happy at this invasion.
This is the setting for a huge environmental issue – the murky and dangerous world of coal mining. Locals here work in the industry and its tied to the fate and fortune of many. The landscape is becoming scarred in many ways and the mountains of Appalachia are being desecrated, the local ecosystem is slowly being poisoned and flat top mining is the cause. Not to mention the lung diseases and other health issues which could quite result in death.
That’s if the whole issue of Litigation doesn’t kill them first.
For more information on the issue of Mountain top removal – we found this site – plunderingappalachia.org
Where Next?
