This is a short book that tells a major story - how a cottage industry has taken over the coast of Bangladesh, where the world's freighters and tankers are driven, full speed, up onto the beach and then dismantled, little by little. Buerk does a good job telling the story of how each task has its specialists, who in turn set up their own little industries, providing jobs for men in villages across the country. It also touches on the environmental impact of taking apart a ship loaded with PCBs, asbestos, oil, hydraulic fluids, etc. There's no EPA and OSHA, that's for sure. Recommended if you're interested in maritime books, for sure, but also if you want to take Thomas Friedman's idea that the World is Flat to its foundation.

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