I Can't Breathe!: Libby, Montana 1958

by H.M. Bowker

It’s 1958, and the Zonolite Company’s asbestos mining operation looms over the town of Libby, Montana, stifling its air and exploiting its people for profits. I Can’t Breathe! exposes the mining company's corporate greed that puts profit above safety. Libby residents, along with millions of consumers, experience the deadly consequences. But corporate abuse isn’t the only kind taking place in Libby.

Among the staff of Libby Public Schools, a sexual abuser secretly targets vulnerable students. In addition, the three Bowman sisters live with abuse in their home. They struggle to find their path of least resistance just to get through each day with their mentally ill mother. When Eric Bowman, the girls' half-brother, moves to Libby and takes a management position at the mining company, he becomes involved with his father's family in positive ways. He also finds himself in harm's way when he investigates the mining operation. And then there were the missing children. Who took the children? Why? What happened to them? The discovery of a child's body in a shallow grave had broader implications than the sheriff could understand.

This story reveals adults who are deeply troubled--and severely damaged children, as well as other adults, who suffer at abusers' hands. These interwoven threads of abuse unfolded in a community where death was given in exchange for a paycheck from the mining company, and where child physical and sexual abuse were as commonplace as the people were willing to allow.

470 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 22, 2014

Reviews

[Kathrine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Accurate depiction of my hometown. great read!

I loved this story and the development of the characters and plot. I particularly loved how several interweaved stories came together. I loved the main plot but also the clever sub-plot regarding the zonolite mine history. A story based not only on my hometown of Libby but in an era when and where I grew up. A story of an abusive mother much like my own really hit me in the gut. Very well told!